U.S. raids yield suspected insurgents, weapons
From the Wolf Blitzer Reports staff in Washington:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In the heart of hostile territory between Tikrit and Baghdad, U.S. troops from the Army's 4th Infantry Division Wednesday sealed off the city of Samarra, a hornet's-nest for insurgents.
In the early-morning, they went house-to-house and detained some 30 suspects.
"The city of Samarra has been a point of friction over time. It's been at times very quiet, at times unstable. It has needed this kind of focus in the eyes of the division leadership," says Col. Frederick Rudesheim, Commander of the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division.
This is the same division that captured former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Saturday.
Wednesday, newly-released home video showed the commander of that operation speaking bluntly to his troops, immediately after Hussein's capture.
"He was living like a pig, literally hiding in a hole. Ok? Again, nobody mentions anything. Got it?" Col. James Hickey of the 4th Infantry Division.
In the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. soldiers killed three attackers attempting a drive-by shooting.
And in Ramadi and other towns, soldiers confiscated substantial weapons caches.
