[url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,89305,00.html[/url]

BALAD, Iraq  — An Iraqi guerrilla ambush on a U.S. tank column north of Baghdad backfired on the attackers Friday, as the Americans quickly turned the tide and [b]hunted down and killed many of the assailants.[/b]

U.S. Central Command said 27 Iraqis had been killed. But Lt. Col. Andy Fowler, commander of the 37th Cavalry in Balad, the scene of the attack, said that only seven Iraqis were killed.
Asked about the Central Command reports of 27 killed, he said, "Those were the initial reports." He did not offer a further explanation for the discrepancy.

Fowler said the Iraqis attacked the tank column after a bomb or mine exploded in the street. The U.S. forces then pursued the attackers through a field.

There were no U.S. casualties, Fowler said.

The skirmish was part of the continuing, four-day-old "Operation Peninsula Strike," intended to root out and destroy Saddam loyalists and Baath Party fighters who have been harassing coalition forces. About 100 Iraqi fighters have been killed in four days of fighting, the U.S. military said.
In other developments, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers said U.S. forces were sifting through intelligence that "foreign fighters" may have been at an alleged terrorist training camp northwest of Baghdad bombed early Thursday by U.S. forces.

In Washington on Friday, a senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said about 70 opposition fighters were killed in Thursday's attack on the training camp — most apparently non-Iraqis from other countries in the region.

If confirmed, it would be the first indication since the war's end that non-Iraqi volunteers were still in the country.

Separately, U.S. troops acting on an intelligence tip arrested 74 people described as sympathizers of the Al Qaeda terrorist network in a raid Thursday near the northern city of Kirkuk (search), said the U.S. Central Command.

Friday's ambush began when what Central Command called  an "organized group" ambushed a U.S. tank patrol with rocket propelled grenades in Balad, on the main north-south highway about 35 miles from the capital. The statement made no mention of U.S. casualties.

The patrol returned fire and killed four of the assailants in the initial gunbattle, the military said.

As the rest of the attackers fled, Apache helicopters joined the chase along with tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, killing more assailants. The statement did not say whether any escaped.

Witnesses said the attackers rushed the tank column from a thicket of reeds near sunflower fields on an isolated rural road a few miles south of Balad.

Bassem Abdul Rahim, a 22-year-old farmer, said he was hiding with his family in his house about 150 yards away when he heard the shooting and saw flashes of gunfire. After the clash, the Americans took away the bodies, he said.

The tank patrol was from the Army's 4th Infantry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas.

American warplanes bombed the alleged training facility 90 miles northwest of Baghdad on Thursday, looking for members of the now-banned Baath Party, Iraqi paramilitary groups and "other subversive elements," said a military statement.

A fierce ground battle followed the air strike in which the Iraqi forces suffered heavy casualties. One American soldier was wounded, said the Central Command.

"It was a tough fight. They were well-trained or well-equipped, and clearly well prepared for this, for the fight they had," Myers said at a Washington briefing on Thursday.

"There were many killed — a large number," Myers said.




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My beloved Army at work.
Very proud, US Army veteran BUMP!

My son is in Balad. Been in Iraq since March and was in Kuwait since Jan, before that. I get the real deal from him. It is driving his mom horseshit listening to this every day!

Sounds like those Iraqis watched Red Dawn one two many times. WOLVERINESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll give the Iraqi's one thing, they have guts but they are totally brainless in the tactics department.......................lets just hope they stay that way.

Cripes, you beat me to it. What a bunch of ultra-maroons! Those tankers will be bitching for days as they tediously clean guts out of the treads.