Vehicle carrying police recruits attacked in northern Iraq, 11 killed

Last update: May 19, 2008 - 10:42 PM

Suspected Sunni insurgents ambushed a minibus carrying Iraqi police recruits near the Syrian border Monday, killing all 11 passengers with gunfire, Iraqi officials said -- the first deadly attack since Iraqi forces launched a major sweep against Al-Qaida fighters in the region.

The attack came hours after Iraqi officials said they had arrested Abdul-Khaliq al-Sabawi, suspected of being Al-Qaida in Iraq's chief leader in the northern city of Mosul.

The minibus was hit in the desert west of Mosul, where the crackdown has been centered. Some Al-Qaida in Iraq fighters are believed to have fled the city toward neighboring Syria.

Police discovered the bodies of the recruits and their vehicle near Baaj, a town 20 miles from Syria, according to a provincial official in Baaj and a Mosul police officer.

It appeared that a large group of insurgents had ambushed the minibus. Nine bodies, including the driver's, were found still in the vehicle and two on the ground outside, the two officials said.

The provincial official said the attack had the hallmarks of Al-Qaida in Iraq and could have been retaliation for the Mosul crackdown, launched more than a week ago.

The U.S. military has described Mosul as Al-Qaida in Iraq's last urban stronghold after the group lost control of cities in western Anbar Province.

NEW DEPLOYMENTS

The Pentagon on Monday announced upcoming deployments of more than 42,000 troops, including 25,000 active- duty Army soldiers who are to be sent to Iraq beginning in the fall to replace troops scheduled to come home by year's end.

The deployments would maintain a level of 15 brigades in Iraq, or roughly 140,000 troops -- the number military leaders expect will remain there, once currently planned withdrawals are finished. Under a policy effective in August, those active-duty Army units will serve for 12 months, rather than the 15-month tours that units in Iraq now are serving.

As part of the announcement, the Pentagon alerted four National Guard Army brigades from Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Tennessee, or about 14,000 troops, to begin preparing for deployments to Iraq beginning next spring, and one National Guard Army brigade from Vermont, with about 3,100 soldiers, to prepare to deploy to Afghanistan in the spring of 2010.

JUVENILES IN CUSTODY

The U.S. military was holding about 500 juveniles in detention centers in Iraq and about 10 at the U.S. base at Bagram, Afghanistan, the United States told the United Nations in an April report. The juveniles were being held for such things as planting bombs, operating as lookouts for insurgents and fighting against coalition forces, the U.S. military said. Civil liberties groups denounced the detentions.

MORE APOLOGIES

Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin. the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, apologized to the country's prime minister and vice president in an attempt to soothe anger over an American sniper using a copy of the Qur'an for target practice. Austin paid visits to each of the two leaders and the Sunni speaker of parliament -- a move underlining the American eagerness to make amends for the incident, revealed over the weekend. Previous apologies were made to local leaders.

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