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Search for Troops Is 'in Vain,' Insurgents Declare
Marines patrol in Anbar province near Fallujah. Elsewhere in Iraq, the hunt continued for three U.S. soldiers who disappeared Saturday near Mahmudiyah after they were attacked. The military also reported the deaths of six troops.
(By Joe Raedle -- Getty Images)
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"By 5:40 a.m., both units were at the scene, began securing the area and initiated a search for the soldiers who failed to respond," the spokesman said. "By 8:04, the responding units were able to finally confirm the deaths of five soldiers."
On Monday, thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by helicopters, planes and aerial drones scoured the rural areas around Mahmudiyah, as well as nearby towns such as Latifiyah, residents and U.S. military officials said. The searches included mosques, farms, shops and deserted buildings, residents said.
The troops included intelligence operatives and interrogators, as well as teams with search dogs, said Caldwell, adding that local Iraqis were providing an abundance of tips that were leading to operations in the area.
But residents of Mahmudiyah complained in interviews about the intensive door-to-door searches, saying the tactic was disrupting their lives.
Ayman Taha, 39, a bank employee, said he hadn't gone to work in three days because he was worried about leaving his wife and children alone in their house.
"Life is almost stopped and the city has become an open field for the military forces," said Taha, adding that 10 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers had entered his house, gone through clothes and searched storage rooms, even the water tank.
"They even examined my personal computer and asked me questions like: Where do you work? And what is your stand on the American Army? Do you support the Sunni fighters or not? Do you have any information or things that you want to mention to us but you are afraid to come to our base?" Taha said.
After the soldiers left, he said, they marked his house with an "X" to indicate that it had been searched.
Special correspondents K.I. Ibrahim, Saad al-Izzi and Waleed Saffar in Baghdad and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.
