Insurgents attack US bases in Iraq
Foreign Desk Report

BAGHDAD—Insurgents attacked several US bases and government offices with mortars and rockets Thursday before dispersing in the capital of western Iraq’s Anbar province, residents and police said. Iraq’s interior minister, meanwhile, fired his top official for human rights in connection with a torture investigation.
The attacks in Ramadi occurred as local tribal leaders and US military officials were to hold their second meeting in a week at the governor’s office in the city center. The insurgents apparently tried to shell the building, but reporters inside said there was no damage or injuries.
Police Lt. Mohammed Al-Obaidi said at least four mortar rounds fell near the US base on the eastern edge of the city, but that there were no reports of casualties. Insurgents also launched mortar rounds at an auditorium in Ramadi where US and Sunni Arab leaders met on Monday, The Washington Post reported earlier this week.
Residents said that scores of masked gunmen, believed to be members of Jordan-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaida in Iraq group, ran into the city’s streets Thursday but dispersed after launching attacks with mortars and Russian-made Katyusha rockets. Life in Ramadi quickly returned to normal after the shooting. The US military said that only one rocket-propelled grenade was fired at an observation post and that there were no injuries or significant damage.
The insurgents did leave behind posters and graffiti saying they were members of al-Qaida in Iraq and claiming responsibility for shooting down a US drone. There were no reports of any US drones being shot down, though.
Ramadi is the provincial capital of Anbar province, a Sunni stronghold, where clashes between insurgents and US and Iraqi troops have left hundreds of people dead in the past two years. US and Iraqi troops launched a joint operation near Ramadi on Wednesday, sweeping through an area used to rig car bombs.
About 500 Iraqi troops joined 2,000 US Marines, soldiers and sailors in a move to clear insurgents from an area on the eastern side of the Euphrates river near Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad,  the US command said in a statement. The offensive came as President Bush said he hopes to shift more of the military burden onto the Iraqis as part of a strategy to draw down American forces.
In a statement, the military said the Hai Al Becker region “is suspected to be an al-Qaida in Iraq safe area and base of operations for the manufacture of vehicle car bombs, roadside bombs.” It described the area as a transit point for foreign fighters and Iraqi insurgents infiltrating from Syria into Iraq. There were no reports of casualties during the first day of the operation, part of a series of sweeps through Sunni Arab towns along the Euphrates believed to be major insurgent strongholds.
Residents reached by telephone said US forces warned townspeople by loudspeakers to stay in their homes for the next three days. Interior Minister Bayan Jabr fired Nouri al-Nouri, the ministry’s chief inspector for corruption cases and human rights violations, on the order of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, an official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Al-Nouri, a Shiite Muslim, had been in the post since the hand over of sovereignty to Iraqi in June 2004. Al-Jaafari, a Shiite, ordered a probe into the alleged mistreatment of up to 173 detainees after US forces entered a ministry of interior lock up on Nov. 13 and found at least some of those being held showed signs of torture.
Two US service members died of wounds suffered in combat and a Marine died in a non-hostile traffic accident, the US military said Thursday. That raised the US death toll for November to at least 84. At least 2,112 members of the US military have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The victims included a Task Force Baghdad soldier who died of gunshot wounds received Wednesday and a Marine who died of wounds suffered the same day in Fallujah, the US command said. The traffic accident involving a Marine from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing occurred near Camp Taqaddum, 45 miles west of Baghdad, another military statement said.
The November death toll was below the October figure of 96 — the fourth deadliest month for US forces since the US-led invasion began in March 2003. Eighty-five US troops died in August. Also Wednesday, a group of influential Sunni clerics called for the release of five Westerners taken hostage last week, saying they should be granted their freedom as a humanitarian gesture.
The Association of Muslim Scholars, believed to have contacts with some Sunni insurgent groups, has helped mediate the release of other Western captives in Iraq. The five include four aid workers from the group Christian Peacemaker Teams — Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Va.; Norman Kember, 74, of London; and James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, both of Canada — and German archaeologist Susanne Osthoff, 43.
On Tuesday, Al-Jazeera broadcast video of the four men held by a previously unknown group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. The group claimed they were spies working under the cover of Christian peace activists.