U.S. troops kill 11 in Samarra firefight

BAGHDAD, Iraq – In an ambush north of Baghdad, guerrilla scouts released pigeons to signal to comrades that a U.S. patrol was in range. In a gunbattle that followed, U.S. snipers killed 11 insurgents, the military reported Tuesday.

Also, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Iraq – and said U.S. troops likely would be in the country for several years.

“About as far as we are looking is through the next couple of years,” Myers said at Baghdad’s airport, where he addressed troops. But he added that it was too early to make a judgment beyond that.

“It’s going to depend on events over the next couple of years. It’s to be determined,” he said. He added he was focusing on the next big rotation of troops into Iraq, which begins in February.

Myers’ visit came two days after U.S. troops nabbed ousted leader Saddam Hussein – though the general said it was planned long before and the timing was coincidental.

U.S. officials say Saddam’s capture may hurt morale in the guerrilla insurgency that has killed some 200 Americans and has plagued efforts at stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq. But they also caution it won’t bring an immediate reduction to attacks – and in fact could increase them on the short term.

“We expect it will take some time before we see any possible effects from what we’ve accomplished,” Myers said.

Still, he added, “when you take this leader, who is at one time a very popular leader in this region, and you find him in a hole in the ground, that’s a pretty powerful statement that you’re on the wrong team.”

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top commander in Iraq, said attacks on U.S. troops remain at around 18 per day. In November, one of the bloodiest months for U.S. forces, attacks reached the low 40s per day – but they dropped after a large offensive launched late in the month.

Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division, told CNN on Tuesday that U.S. authorities were acting with skepticism on information given by Saddam in interrogation.

“I mean, let’s face it. He was the artful dodger, and I think even what we get from him in the near term, we probably will have to corroborate in other ways,” Dempsey told the network.

Nevertheless, the general said, information gained in the arrest of the fugitive despot had led to the capture of “some high-level former Baath leaders … we consider to be the network that was providing the financial support for the (insurgent) cell structure in Baghdad.”

A roadside bomb, meanwhile, wounded three soldiers in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit. Two were in stable condition, and the third returned to duty, the Army said.

Also Tuesday, a pro-Saddam demonstration in the northern city of Mosul ended in violence. One policeman was killed and a second was injured, police said. U.S. helicopters flew over the crowd and several armored vehicles were deployed nearby.

In the ambush Monday afternoon in the town of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, guerrilla scouts released a flock of pigeons as the U.S. patrol approached, apparently as a signal, a military statement said.

Two gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on American vehicles, and then took cover among children leaving school. The attackers used a roadside bomb, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades in the attack but inflicted no casualties on the patrol, the military said in a statement.

U.S. snipers suppressed enemy fire and hit no civilians, the statement said. A company commander on the scene said 11 insurgents were killed in the ensuing firefight.

Samarra, a volatile town in the so-called Sunni Triangle that stretches north and west from Baghdad, was the scene of an intense battle between U.S. troops and insurgents last month. U.S. commanders claimed to have killed 54 guerrillas, but local residents and police reported that less than 10 people – most of them civilians – died in the firefight.

Myers cast doubt on regional news reports about the arrest of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who is the highest-ranking member of Saddam’s former regime still at large and is thought to be organizing anti-U.S. attacks.

“We heard the same thing. We chased that down. We are not aware that has taken place,” he said.

Pro-Saddam demonstrations have been held in several Iraqi towns.

In the town of Ramadi west of Baghdad, soldiers killed three protesters and wounded two more on Monday, after as many as 750 people rallied in support for Saddam, the military said. The statement said U.S. troops were fired at repeatedly and one soldier was wounded.

In Fallujah, another hotspot of anti-American resistance west of Baghdad, crowds chanted: “We defend Saddam with our souls.” They overran the mayor’s office Monday after Iraqi police withdrew from the streets, the military said.

On Tuesday, dozens of U.S. troops, two tanks and a number of Bradley troop vehicles went to the municipal building in an apparent show of force, as helicopters hovered overhead.

Also Tuesday, the military said a U.S. soldier died after falling out of a moving vehicle north of Baghdad.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi was reported as saying that Saddam could receive a fair trial in his home country.

“All parties are interested in making it fair,” spokesman Entifadh Qanbar told British Broadcasting Corp. TV. “It will also send the right message to have a trial conducted in Iraq by Iraqis to heal the wounds of those victims or the families of the victims.”

Human rights groups have expressed concern at some Iraqi predictions of a swift trial and a swift execution of Saddam. But Qanbar insisted an Iraqi trial would help the country’s transition to democracy.