IRAQ: Two US soldiers were killed and two wounded in attacks north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad yesterday, the US military said.
A US military spokesman said the soldiers were killed in separate attacks near the town of Balad, about 100kms north of Baghdad.
The spokesman said one soldier was killed and two were wounded when they were ambushed with rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire. A few minutes later a US soldier helping to transport detainees was killed by a roadside bomb a few kilometres away.
US troops unleashed tank and mortar fire at suspected guerrilla hideouts in Saddam Hussein's home town yesterday after the broadcast of an audio tape purportedly from the fugitive ex-leader urging holy war.
Soldiers from the 4th infantry division fanned out through Tikrit, and the ground shook as US shells hit positions which commanders said were used by guerrillas to fire rockets or mortar bombs at the US base in the town.
"For us this is not a display, we want to get the enemy," said battalion commander Lieut Col Steve Russell.
"The message is: 'Give up, it's over'." Flares lit up the sky and attack helicopters clattered overhead. In one attack, four M1A1 Abrams tanks perched on top of a desert cliff fired on targets in the fields below.
The division's spokesman, Lieut Col William MacDonald, said the barrage comprised 38 co-ordinated attacks, and included firing a GPS-guided missile with a 500-pound warhead at what he said was a guerrilla sanctuary south of Tikrit.
Lieut MacDonald said the co-ordinated attacks destroyed 15 guerrilla safe houses, three training camps and 14 mortar firing positions. Soldiers from the 4th infantry division also killed six insurgents who attacked them in separate incidents, he said.
On the western outskirts of Baghdad, US soldiers cordoned off a section of the Abu Ghraib neighbourhood and went from house to house searching for weapons and ammunition after attacks on American troops in the area.
On the Syrian border, the army said, US forces apprehended six "suspected foreign fighters". "During their detention, one of the individuals attacked a US soldier with a knife and was shot and killed," the army said. The other five were detained.
US forces in Iraq have adopted tough new tactics this month in response to deadly guerrilla attacks and the downing of several American helicopters.
On Saturday night, two US Black Hawks collided and crashed under fire in the northern city of Mosul, killing 17 soldiers and wounding five. The disaster was the deadliest single incident for US troops since they invaded Iraq in March.
Dubai-based Al Arabiya television broadcast an audio tape on Sunday said to be from Saddam Hussein. The voice on the tape exhorted Iraqis to drive occupying troops from their country.
However, the CIA said last night that the latest audio message cannot be authenticated.
The quality of the recording is too poor for the agency's technical analysts to reach any conclusions, a CIA spokesman said.
US troops hunting guerrillas have captured a former Iraqi special forces officer and militia leader suspected of staging attacks on American troops in the "Sunni triangle" region north and west of Baghdad, the US army said yesterday.
It said Kathim Mohammad Faris, described as "a former Iraqi Special Forces officer and a Fedayeen leader", was captured in the town of Habbaniya on Saturday.