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
