US warplanes and armoured vehicles have battered suspected guerrilla hideouts in Saddam Hussein's hometown after six soldiers were killed when a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down earlier this week. F-16 fighter planes dropped bombs on targets near Tikrit, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, and troops backed by Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles destroyed several houses which the US military believed had been used by insurgents.
Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell of the 4th Infantry Division based in Tikrit confirmed the Black Hawk that crashed on Friday had been brought down by guerrillas. "We do believe it was brought down by ground fire," he said. Soldiers said the Black Hawk was probably hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. It was the third US helicopter to be shot down in Iraq in the last two weeks. The US response was swift. After dark on Friday, warplanes swooped over Tikrit, dropping several 500-pound bombs near the helicopter crash site. Then raids were launched around the town — a hotbed of resistance to the US-led occupation. "We are targeting those areas where we have had attacks on coalition forces," Lieutenant-Colonel Russell said. "We want to eliminate those threats."
| I hope the bastards are stacked nine deep. But al-Jazeera should be carrying footage of the destroyed baby duck hatcheries any time now... |
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