Tape Claims Al Qaeda Is at Work in Iraq

A group calling itself a wing of Al Qaeda claimed responsibility Sunday for attacks on American troops in Iraq, as U.S. forces killed five Iraqis in raids aimed at preventing such violence during two Iraqi holidays this week.

Early today, on the first of those holidays, a soldier with the 3rd Infantry Division was killed and six others were wounded in an attack using several rocket-propelled grenades in the Al Mansour area of Baghdad, said Army spokeswoman Spc. Nicole Thompson.

The claim, made in an audiotape aired on Dubai-based Al Arabiya television, insisted that allies of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had played no role in the recent attacks.

The tape, whose authenticity could not be verified, also warned of a new attack in the coming days that would “break the back of America completely.”

Concern over intensified violence prompted the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division to launch a series of raids Sunday for Hussein sympathizers whom U.S. military officials hold responsible for the attacks.

The early hours of Operation Ivy Serpent, the fourth major sweep in a swath of territory stretching from Baghdad’s suburbs north to Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, resulted in the arrests of a former senior member of the Fedayeen Saddam militia, a leader of Hussein’s Baath Party in Diyala province and an Iraqi army general, a spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division said. More than 80 other suspected resistance members were detained.

The operation is essentially a preemptive strike ahead of two major anniversaries that U.S. intelligence reports point to as days when guerrillas may launch attacks.

Today is the anniversary of the 1958 coup that toppled the Iraqi monarchy, and Thursday is the anniversary of the 1968 coup that brought the Baath Party to power.

“Intelligence that we’ve gathered has told us that former Baath Party leadership, subversive elements, are planning to attack [today] and on the 17th,” said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, a 4th Infantry Division spokeswoman.

The release Sunday of the threatening audiotape, by someone claiming to represent a previously unknown group called the Armed Islamic Movement for Al Qaeda, the Fallouja branch, added to the jitters over the anniversaries.

“I swear by God no one from his [Hussein’s] followers carried out any jihad operations like he claims.... They are a result of our brothers in jihad,” said the taped voice, which was not identified. The town of Fallouja, west of Baghdad, has been a hot spot of anti-American anger.

But Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other military officials, speaking Sunday before the audiotape aired, did not blame Al Qaeda for the wave of attacks against U.S. forces but rather accused supporters of the former regime.

“During the month of July, which is an anniversary for a lot of Baathist events, we could see an increase in the number of attacks,” Rumsfeld said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“We’re still in a war,” Rumsfeld said. “There’s still a lot of people from the Baathists and Fedayeen, Saddam-regime types who are there, who are disadvantaged by the fact that their regime has been thrown out, and would like to get back. But they’re not going to succeed.”

Two of the Iraqis killed by U.S. troops Sunday were shot after they fired rocket-propelled grenades that narrowly missed a U.S. convoy patrolling Baqubah, Aberle said. Two more were killed near Balad as they tried to avoid a checkpoint that had been hastily arranged after soldiers recognized a vehicle from an earlier shooting. In that attack, a U.S. patrol took fire from a crowd of more than 15 people who quickly dispersed, she said. A fifth Iraqi was killed in a confrontation north of Balad.

Balad and Baqubah, north of Baghdad, have been the site of many anti-American attacks. U.S. troops at a former Iraqi air base near Balad have faced mortar fire on several nights this month, soldiers said.

The operation, named after the 4th Infantry’s nickname -- the “Ivy Division” -- will last until the targeted guerrillas are captured, military officials said. The raids have taken place along the Highway 1 corridor that stretches from south of Balad to Tikrit.

More than 30 members of the U.S. military have been killed in action since President Bush declared major combat over May 1, and an average of 13 attacks against American forces occur daily.

The tips that led soldiers to ring the homes of suspected Fedayeen Saddam members, Baath Party partisans and senior Iraqi military leaders came largely from the 233 people captured in the three previous operations and included tips from some of the 16 detainees considered high-profile “specific targets,” Aberle said.

Among them was a Hussein double captured late last month in a secret raid that came after a local resident tipped off coalition troops, thinking he had found the toppled Iraqi president, a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity.

Military officials acknowledged that none of the tips gave the whereabouts of the most-wanted Iraqis -- Hussein and his sons, Qusai and Uday. Rumsfeld said Sunday that finding Hussein was more important than capturing Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“We do need to find him,” Rumsfeld said of Hussein. “We do need to get closure, and it’s quite different from Osama bin Laden.... The fact that [Bin Laden] has not been found isn’t causing that kind of a problem. The fact that Saddam Hussein has not been found does cause a problem.”

Rumsfeld acknowledged that additional U.S. troops may be needed to supplement the 147,000 Americans already deployed in Iraq.

“Are we willing to increase it if necessary? You bet. The president says we’ll have as many forces as are needed for as long as they’re needed, and not any longer,” he said. “It could be increased.”

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Times staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.