U.S. troops clash with insurgents in Ramadi

Suspects held in chopper downings
The No. 2 American commander in Iraq, meanwhile, said the U.S. military has captured at least two suspects in the recent series of helicopter downings.

Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno also said the military has noted similarities in some of the eight helicopter incidents in the past month in which aircraft were either shot down or landed under fire. A few of them might have been ambushed, he said.

Odierno declined to detail any other similarities in tactics and techniques used, but said officials are studying them closely to try to better protect the aircraft and capture militants from the cells involved, which he said he believes are “al-Qaida-associated cells.”

Odierno said he doesn’t think the downings — and two incidents of chlorine bombs this week — signal a more capable insurgency.

“What they’re trying to do is ... adapt in such ways where they can continue to create instability,” he told Pentagon reporters in a video conference from Baghdad.

Iraqi soldiers face rape charge
Separately, four Iraqi soldiers have been accused of raping a 50-year-old Sunni woman and the attempted rape of her two daughters in the second allegation of sexual assault leveled against Iraqi forces this week, an official said.

Brig. Gen. Nijm Abdullah said the attack allegedly occurred about 10 days ago in the northern city of Tal Afar during a search for weapons and insurgents.

A lieutenant and three enlisted men denied the charge but later confessed after they were confronted by the woman, a Turkoman. Abdullah said a fifth soldier suspected something was wrong, burst into the house and forced the others at gunpoint to stop the assault.

“They have been referred to the judicial authorities so they can receive their just punishment,” said Abdullah, who effectively serves as mayor of the city.

A tribal leader from Tal Afar, Sheik Mohammed Khalil Hanash of the Hawyat clan, said the alleged attack took place on Feb. 8. He said the woman told him that the lieutenant’s only role was filming the alleged attack with a cell phone video camera.

A second rape allegation within a single week is likely to undermine further the reputation of Iraq’s security services, which the U.S. hopes can take over from coalition troops so the Americans and their allies can go home.

Iraqis support U.K. withdrawal
Taking a step in that direction, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Britain will withdraw around 1,600 troops in the coming months and hopes to make other cuts to its 7,100-strong contingent by late summer.

The Iraqi government welcomed the decision, with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki saying it was “a decision in harmony with the government’s intention to assume security responsibilities in the province,” referring to Basra, a predominantly Shiite area 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

A spokesman for President Jalal Talabani also said the move would act as a “catalyst for Iraqi forces to assume security responsibilities.”

“His excellency considers it as a positive step and thanks British forces for their role in liberating Iraq from dictatorship and maintaining stability in Iraq,” Talabani’s spokesman Hiwa Othman said.

Thunderous explosions reverberated through Baghdad earlier Thursday as the security crackdown in the capital entered its second week. Violence has continued to hit the city of 6 million people, although not at the high levels of earlier this year.

A mortar attack struck the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Adil in western Baghdad, wounding at least four people, including a child, police said.

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