THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ: HEAT CONTROL; JOINT RAIDS; CYBER ATTACK - U.S.-Iraqi raids net weapons, suspects
baghdad -- Helicopter gunships attacked suspected insurgent hide-outs, and U.S. and Iraqi soldiers staged simultaneous raids across Iraq on Monday as coalition forces unleashed the full force of the American troop buildup.
The U.S.-led commando operations targeted Al Qaeda in Iraq and Shiite Muslim militants by striking at reported safe havens, weapons caches and bomb-building sites here and in other volatile areas throughout the country.
At least 17 suspected insurgent leaders were captured and dozens of improvised explosive devices were seized and disarmed, military officials said.
The operation was touted by U.S. military officials as the culmination of the deployment of an additional 28,500 U.S. troops to Iraq in recent months. It followed a recent coalition offensive aimed at flushing militants from their support zones, disrupting supply lines and capturing or killing "high-value" suspects.
"The intent is to keep the enemy on the run," said Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, whose Task Force Marne waged strikes on insurgents holed up in the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys.
U.S. officials blame foreign fighters and Shiite militias allegedly aided by Iran for the violence that every month kills nearly 100 American soldiers and thousands of Iraqi troops, police and civilians.
The military said three U.S. soldiers were killed Monday by an explosion near their vehicle in Nineveh province, and a fourth was killed in combat in west Baghdad. The deaths bring to 3,693 the number of American service members killed since the beginning of the war, according to icasualties.org.
Witnesses in Tikrit, Ramadi, Fallouja, Mosul and Samarra reported seeing helicopters sweep over suspected insurgent hide-outs Monday, blasting them with rockets. A senior Iraqi army officer in Fallouja said that 15 insurgents were killed but that at least 60 others escaped.
Police in east Baghdad reported that at least two U.S. convoys hit explosive devices, including a Humvee that was destroyed and its occupants killed or badly injured. The attack could not be independently confirmed.
U.S. military officials said dozens of strategists and financiers were arrested in the raids.
In Samarra, U.S. forces raiding a house failed to find a suspected leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq but arrested his three brothers.
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