Nation & World News
U.S. launches offensive strike against attackers
The insurgents have been
targeting U.S. troops and
may be linked to a helicopter
crash that killed 17 soldiers
By Jeff Wilkinson and Maureen Fan
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
TIKRIT, Iraq — The U.S. military on
Sunday launched a fresh series of at
tacks on insurgent positions in central
and northern Iraq, as the investigation
continued into the crashes in Mosul
of two helicopters on Saturday
evening that killed 17 101st Airborne
Division soldiers — in the worst sin
gle-incident death toll since the be
ginning of the Iraq war.
In Mosul, with scout helicopters
overhead and surrounded by jeering
crowds, investigators picked through
the wreckage of the downed helicop
ters, but were unable to confirm re
ports that they had collided after one
was fired on and perhaps struck by a
rocket-propelled grenade.
In Tikrit, the 4th Infantry Division
launched the latest in a series of offen
sive strikes — this one dubbed Opera
tion Ivy Cyclone Two — aimed at
rooting out the insurgency that has
been attacking coalition forces 35
times a day.
The overnight operation that ex
tended well into Monday morning in
volved close air support for ground
troops and the use of heavy weaponry
not seen since the main phase of the
war that ended on May 1, including
the launch of a satellite-guided missile
with a 500-pound warhead from a
mobile launch pad north of Baghdad.
The missile struck an insurgent
training center on an island on the
Little Zab River west of the northern
city of Kirkuk.
In Tikrit, army units fired artillery
and tank rounds at insurgent positions
early Monday morning, destroying a
number of houses, including one be
longing to a senior official of Saddam
Hussein's former government.
Also on Sunday, Al Arabia Television
broadcast an audiotape that it said was
Saddam Hussein's voice for the first
time since just after his sons were killed
in Mosul in July. Giving greetings for
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan
in measured tones and with a tired ca
dence, the speaker called on Iraqis to
fight the transitional authority. It was
not immediately clear whether he was
referring to the upcoming provisional
government that Iraq's Governing
Council announced on Saturday — or
to the council itself, which is to be
phased out.
Occupational forces are in trouble,
the speaker said, in an apparent refer
ence to all military forces working
with the Americans.
The two helicopters downed in Mo
sul were on separate missions, flying
after dark when the incident occurred
about 6:30 p.m., a spokesman said.
They crashed on two rooftops about
250 yards apart.
One Black Hawk carrying 12 sol
diers was responding to reports of a
bank being fired upon in the Bab
Sinjar neighborhood in west Mosul.
Seven soldiers were killed and five
injured in that crash.
It is unclear whether the helicopter
collided with another Black Hawk
transporting 10 soldiers to an undis
closed location. All 10 soldiers in the
second helicopter were killed.
"Our main concern right now is to
recover all of the remains and do a
thorough investigation,” said 101st
Division spokesman Maj. Trey Cate.
Spc. Michael Pearson, 21, of Liver
more, Colo., said he was angry about
the incidents "because there is noth
ing we can do about it. They were
good men and women, and they did
n't deserve to die that way."
The two soldiers were part of a large
cordon of troops securing the perime
ter of a four-lane boulevard in the
working-class residential area where
the crashes occurred.
At each intersection, large crowds,
mostly young men and boys, taunted
the soldiers. The soldiers responded
by shouting, cocking their weapons
and at least once threatening the
crowds with billy clubs.
"We hate them, * said Ahmed Abdul
lah, 21, who sells cigarettes from a street
cart. "We don't want them here Every
one is happy they lost the helicopters."
Mohammed Ahmed, a 40-year-old
grocer, said the people of the city,
Iraq's third largest, are becoming in
creasingly frustrated with civilian
deaths they blame on U S. soldiers.
There is also lingering resentment of
the United States because of the hard
ships brought by 13 years of U N.
sanctions after the first Gulf War, and
a perception that the ruling coalition
hasn't moved fast enough to provide
basic services such as telephone serv
ice and dependable power.
"The people here like Saddam be
cause life was better," before the U S
wars, he said.
(c) 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services. Wilkinson
reported from Tikrit and Mosul;
Fan reported from Baghdad.
Medicare drug plan awaits congressional approval
bush says he will actively
push’ the prescription drug
plan despite widespread
skepticism by opponents
By James Kuhnhenn
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — President Bush
and congressional leaders on Sunday
began the hard work of selling a
complex, newly forged Medicare pre
scription drug plan to skeptical con
servatives and reluctant Democrats
in hopes of getting Congressional
approval by week's end.
The plan would help millions of
seniors fill their prescriptions, a long
sought Democratic goal that would
cost $400 billion over 10 years. It also
would expand the role of the private
sector in Medicare and broaden the
use of tax-free health savings ac
counts, a Republican priority.
"There's going to be immense pres
sure on members of both the House
and the Senate to support this bill,"
President Bush said on the South
Lawn of the White House. "I will be
actively pushing the bill because it
conforms to the principles I laid out
for prescription drugs for our seniors:
choice for seniors, accountability for
the Medicare plan."
Top negotiators and their staffs re
leased details of the plan Sunday,
about 20 hours after the deal was
sealed late Saturday. But congression
al budget experts planned to work late
into Monday to determine the actual
cost of the various provisions.
Still, lawmakers who have been
working on the bill since early sum
mer were buoyant Sunday. Over the
last few weeks, they had subsisted on
sodas and pistachio nuts in tense
meetings as Republican leaders
pressed them for a final deal.
On Sunday they presented a biparti
san face. Two Democratic negotiators
— Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and
John Breaux of Louisiana — joined top
Republicans to lend their support.
"What we have on balance is a
moderate plan ... that gets the job
done/' Breaux said.
That opposition could still sink
the bill. Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist, R-Tenn., said he hopes to have
final passage by the end of next week
— even on Sunday if necessary. But
critics already were lining up, and
they included Sen. Edward Kennedy,
D-Mass., an expert on health care
and a supporter of the original pre
scription drug bill that passed the
Senate last summer.
Speaking on CBS's "Face the Na
tion" Sunday, Kennedy predicted the
bill would fail.
'Ibis has been a litmus test by those
who have never supported and Ousted
Medicare, to make sure that they had
the provisions in there that was going
to begin the dismantling of Medicare.
And that's unacceptable," he said.
(c) 2003, Knight Ridder/
Tribune Information Services.
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