Washington, June 25: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today he had no reason to believe senior Iraqis were killed in a US raid on a convoy near the Syrian border last week in which US forces ended up fighting Syrian border guards. More than five days after the raid in western Iraq, Rumsfeld and general Richard Myers, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, were unable to say how many people were killed, who they were or whether US forces crossed into Syria in the course of the operation.
They said people were still sorting through what happened.
"I`m confident we had very good intelligence," Myers told reporters.
He said the raid was launched early Thursday by task force 20, a secret unit set up to hunt down members of the deposed Baathist regime, including Saddam Hussein and his two sons.
"This raid was based on intelligence gained from the recent capture of leaders of the toppled regime," Myers said. "We struck two elements of the convoy, one on a highway and one in the compound. We are continuing to gather information from this strike, so we don`t have any additional details at the moment."
The White House yesterday said Iraqi leaders were the targets of the operation, and defense officials said the convoy of six or seven vehicles was believed to be carrying regime figures when it was struck.
But asked whether senior Iraqi leaders were taken out, Rumsfeld said, "I have no reason to believe that." Bureau Report