Iraqis assume Iran's border control; Washington build up 15,000 troops

At a time when the "police" of the oil pipelines which is basically composed of former Iraqi military men trained by the American and British occupation forces started yesterday to position in areas of northern Iraq where the oil pipelines are exposed to continuous attacks, the occupation forces on Saturday assigned a new Iraqi force the responsibility of guarding part of the borders with Iran of 335 Km length of the area which is mostly dominated by the Kurds to the north in Eastern Baghdad area, to be the first time in which Iraqis maintain full control on part of their borders since toppling Saddam Hussein.

Pentagon's statement said that "it is expected that these units will stay in the Iraqi arena for a period of 12 months and the total period for alert may reach 18 months permitting training, departure and deployment of these forces." The American occupation forces on Saturday assigned to a new Iraqi force of 1200 soldiers the responsibility for guiding part of the borders with Iraq. The US trained the Iraqi forces and provided it with equipment along the three past months and most of them are locals including policemen and former soldiers.

Meantime, an American military source announced that four American soldiers were wounded yesterday in two separate attacks one of them was in Alexandria, 45 Km to the south of Baghdad and the second is in al-Taji, 10 Km to the north of Baghdad. Worthy mentioning that the US forces is rarely exposed to attacks in Alexandria area, situated in the midway between Baghdad and Kerbalaa.

An American military vehicle was exposed to an attack by explosives in the city of al-Falouja. Witnesses confirmed that Americans were wounded in the ambush, while an American car was exposed to attacks by light weapons on al-Qadeseyah high way to the south of Baghdad. One American tank was damaged in the city of Baqouba when it was exposed to an attack by missiles.

A security source indicated on Saturday that one explosive was defused that was placed near the headquarters of al-Falouja city municipality.

The American soldiers opened fire at two cars at one of the inspection points near al- Falouja and this resulted in killing 4 Iraqi, three men and one woman from the same family and others were wounded including a female child.

Also,he occupation forces discovered a large amount of weapons in the outskirts of Tikrit including 23 land to air Russian- made missiles, according to an American military spokeswoman. She added that the soldiers found 450 Kg of explosives and 115 RPJ over the shoulder weapons; 430 mortars. The weapons were found in a farm in al-Auja village, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein.

On the hand, the Iraqi daily al-Sabah said that a mass grave was found including the remains of 200 persons in the city of Karkouk, near a palace owned by Ali Hassan al-Majid.