An Iraqi official said Wednesday that 85 insurgents were killed on Tuesday when Iraqi commandos, assisted by U.S. air and ground support, staged a midday attack on a suspected training camp in a rural area northwest of the capital.
The guerrilla death toll was the largest in any battle since the Marines led an assault on the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November, when more than 1,000 fighters were reported killed.[...]
"An early assessment of the site indicates a facility for training Anti-Iraqi Forces," a statement from the 42nd Infantry Division said, using the U.S. military's term for insurgents. The statement said evidence recovered at the scene indicated that some of the fighters were foreigners.
Kadhim told the Reuters news agency that "among the dead are Arab and foreign fighters, including Sudanese, Algerians and Moroccans, as well as other nationalities."
WaPo article
UP to 40 fighters were seen today at a Iraq lakeside training camp attacked by US and Iraqi forces a day before and said they had never left, an AFP correspondent who visited the site said.
The correspondent, who went with other journalists to the camp at Lake Tharthar, 200km north of Baghdad, said he saw 30 to 40 fighters there.
The remains of three burnt vehicles were seen on a dusty road leading to the camp in the village of Ain al-Hilwa. A few mud huts were partly destroyed and a few big craters gouged the ground.
One of the fighters, who called himself Mohammed Amer and claimed to belong to the Secret Islamic Army, said they had never left the base.
He also said only 11 of his comrades were killed in airstrikes on the site.[...]
Local hospitals said they had received no casualties from the battle.
Australian News article
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