U.S. forces detain 17 suspected insurgents in Iraqi al-Qaida raid

BAGHDAD – U.S. forces detained 17 suspected insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq on Saturday, the military said, a day after the Pentagon announced the capture of one of the terror network’s most senior and experienced operatives.\nElsewhere, U.S. fighter jets destroyed a truck bomb discovered in Anbar province, and an American raid south of Baghdad netted insurgent weapons apparently imported from neighboring Iran, the military said Saturday.\nU.S. and Iraqi officials in Baghdad declined to comment about Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, 46, who was captured last fall on his way to Iraq, where he may have been sent by top terror leaders in Pakistan to take a senior position in al-Qaida in Iraq, officials said Friday in Washington.\nThe insurgent group has claimed responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks in Iraq, including the bombing last year of a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra, which touched off a cycle of sectarian killings.\nAfter being secretly held by the CIA for months, al-Iraqi – who was born in the northern city of Mosul and once served in Iraq’s military – has been shipped to the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison for terror suspects, the Pentagon said.\nIt said the Iraqi militant is believed responsible for plotting cross-border attacks from Pakistan on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and plotting to assassinate Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and U.N. officials.\nThe U.S. military in Baghdad said Saturday’s raids targeting suspected al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents netted four people in Mosul; six near Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad; two near the Syrian border; two in the Iraqi capital; and three near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. The statement linked some to al-Qaida in Iraq, including one who allegedly served as an intelligence officer.\n“We’re achieving a deliberate, systematic disruption in the al-Qaida in Iraq network,” Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, said in the statement.\nThe truck loaded with explosives was found early Friday near Fallujah, after Marines received information from a detained insurgent, the military said. After cordoning off and evacuating the area, the Marines called in U.S. fighter jets that destroyed the truck, causing an explosion large enough to damage some nearby buildings, the military said.\nIn Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces detained eight suspected insurgents and confiscated three caches of weapons during a raid on an apartment complex on April 22, including mortars, rockets and ammunition. The weapons appeared to be new and “were stamped with recent dates and Iranian markings,” the military said.\nThe United States has frequently accused Iran of allowing insurgents to enter this country carrying weapons such as deadline roadside bombs used to attack U.S. and Iraqi convoys.\nAlso Saturday, the Danish military announced that it has sent an unspecified number of special forces to Iraq to reinforce its 460-strong contingent near the southern city of Basra.\nBut it stressed the troops were on a temporary mission and would not affect Denmark’s plans to withdraw its contingent from the area by August and replace it with a smaller helicopter unit.\nDanish and British forces in the area have faced stepped up attacks as Shiite militias have increasingly been competing for power since the British government announced in February that it would begin withdrawing troops in Iraq this summer.\n“I can confirm that the Iraqis, Danes and British are putting a great effort into finding the elements that are shooting at Danish and British soldiers day and night,” Defense Minister Soeren Gade told Danish broadcaster TV2.\nEleven British soldiers have been killed in the area this month, raising to 145 the number of British troops who have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Six Danish soldiers have been killed in Iraq.