Iraq hotel attack suspects captured
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) -- In overnight raids U.S. troops captured 12 people suspected of involvement in a deadly attack last month on a Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying, a top commander said Saturday.
The suspects appeared to have links to the former regime of ousted president Saddam Hussein, said Brigadier General Martin Dempsey, commander of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division.
On October 26, Attackers fired rockets into the Rasheed hotel, located inside the compound of Iraq's U.S.-led administration. One U.S. military officer was killed and 15 others were wounded. Wolfowitz was visiting Iraq at the time. (Full story)
"Based on multiple sources who provided human intelligence, the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division conducted a raid overnight in western Baghdad and captured 12 of 18 targets believed to have been responsible for the attack," Dempsey said.
Military officers said the operation involved raids on several different locations. They said they believed they had broken up a cell of former regime figures, which included a financier, a supplier and operatives.
Soldiers found $10,000 in cash in the home of the suspected leader, a military source said. The source also said there was no evidence so far of any foreign involvement in the cell.
U.S. officers in Iraq have blamed former regime supporters and Islamic militants from outside the country for the scores of attacks on their troops, Iraqis cooperating with the occupying powers and international organizations in post-war Iraq.
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