U.S. launches anti-insurgent operation
Joint chiefs chairman says Saddam 'not being cooperative'
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U.S. troops, which routed more than 100 insurgents in overnight raids, check cars in Fallujah on Sunday.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. troops overnight launched a new operation targeting anti-coalition insurgents, the military said Sunday, capturing more than 100 enemy personnel and confiscating arms caches.
The U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment launched Operation Rifles Fury on Sunday, joining the 82nd Airborne's Task Force All American, the 4th Infantry Division's Operation Iron Horse and other units chasing insurgents, a military spokeswoman said.
Operating in western Iraq near the border with Syria, Operation Rifles Fury also will "destroy terrorist training camps in the Rawah area," the spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, a week after the United States announced that it had captured Saddam Hussein, U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers told CNN's "Late Edition" that the toppled Iraqi leader "was not being cooperative, ... defiant is probably a good word."
Documents in Saddam's possession at the time of his arrest, however, were providing insight into the Iraqi insurgent movement, according to the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Anti-insurgent patrols and searches by the 82nd Airborne captured 96 "terrorists" and searches by the 1st Battalion, 550th Parachute Infantry Regiment captured another 14 "enemy personnel" over the last 24 hours, the spokeswoman said. The troops also confiscated small arms caches.
Both units operate west of Baghdad in the area of Fallujah and Ramadi.
Also appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Myers said that since Saddam's capture, U.S. forces had picked up "more than several hundred" insurgents.
"The information gleaned when we picked up Saddam Hussein led to a better understanding of the structure [of the insurgency]," said Myers, who has just recently returned from Iraq. "We think there are some of the leadership of this insurgency [caught up in the sweep]."
Myers also said that the United States was committed to maintaining at least 100,000 troops in the country through the end of next year.
Regarding the interrogation of Saddam at an undisclosed location, Myers would only say that the former Iraqi president was "not being cooperative."
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said Sunday that Saddam is unlikely to give up any useful intelligence.
"I think he was confused and somewhat bewildered at first, somewhat shocked at his circumstances," Roberts said, appearing on CBS' "Face Nation." "But he soon reverted to the old speeches that he gave."
The documents captured with Saddam have shed more light on the resistance, Roberts said.
They "gave us an insight on the intelligence side on how these cells are operating," he said. The insurgent cells "largely came from the Baath Party and specific places in the Baath Party."
Official: Gasoline lines hit
Meanwhile, Issam Jassim, a spokesman for Iraq's Oil Ministry, told CNN on Sunday that insurgents had hit gasoline supply lines near Baghdad overnight Friday.
One attack targeted a pipeline in Mishada, about 22 miles north of Baghdad, he said, and in the other, a rocket-propelled grenade hit a line south of the capital.
In that attack, Jassim said, about 2.6 million gallons of gas were lost. He had no figures for the first attack.
Later Sunday, a fuel storage facility went up in a roaring blaze of fire, but officials could not say if insurgents were responsible.
Also Sunday, a four-member delegation from the Arab League toured Baghdad in advance of a scheduled Wednesday meeting with the Iraqi Governing Council, Iraq's Foreign Ministry said.
The group, led by Ahmed Bin Hilli, assistant to the league's secretary-general for political affairs, arrived Friday. Saturday, they met with Iraq's acting foreign minister.
The 22-nation Arab League does not recognize the Governing Council as the legitimate governing body of Iraq.
Myers, asked on Fox about rumors of a plot to kidnap members of the Governing Council and exchange them for Saddam, said such a plot "should not be a surprise."
"I don't know how to answer that in terms of seriousness," he said. "But we've seen this: they've gone after the infrastructure, they've gone after chiefs of police, they've gone after mayors."
Those civilians working toward Iraqi democracy -- including the coalition's chief civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer -- "show as much courage as the soldiers on the ground," he said.
Other developments
• Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on Saturday made a brief visit to 1,300 Spanish peacekeeping troops in southern Iraq. For security reasons, the trip was a secret until after Aznar's party arrived in Iraq, Aznar's office told CNN's Spanish-based sister network. (Full story)
• Coalition Provisional Authority said 15 insurgents engaged a 4th Infantry Division in a gun battle north of Fallujah. Three insurgents were killed, and there were no coalition casualties.
