TIKRIT, Iraq - Eighty-four insurgents were killed in an assault by Iraqi and US forces on a lakeside training camp north of Baghdad, Iraqi commanders said Wednesday, in the bloodiest operation since January's election.
An officer in the interior ministry's 1st Commando Battalion, who took part in the 17-hour operation on Tuesday and would only give his name as Colonel Jalil, told AFP that they were able to destroy an important training camp and holding point for insurgents and foreign fighters slipping in from the Syrian border to the west.
"This was a serious military camp with a living section and guard posts," he said at his base in nearby Samarra. "We destroyed their boats and tents."
He said fighters had been using fishing boats to cross the large man-made Tharthar Lake from the tense Al-Anbar province to the west to the tiny village of Ain al-Hilwa on the border with Salaheddin province, another restive area.
The camp was a ramshackle of tents and mud huts in this isolated and remote area devoid of any civilian presence about 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Baghdad.
Jalil said machine guns, rockets, arms and training manuals including ones on how to make roadside bombs were found at the camp along with fake identification cards, passports and documents that proved the presence of foreigners, long blamed by both US and Iraqi officials for the bulk of the insurgency.
He estimated that some 100 fighters might have been at the camp at the time of the attack.
"After hours of fierce fighting, 84 were killed," said Sabah Kadhim, an advisor at the interior ministry.
"It was one off the most successful operations we've had."
Kadhim said 10 foreign fighters were counted among the dead and the number could rise. Passports were found from Algeria, Morrocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Sudan, according to Kadhim and Lieutenant Colonel Sarmad Hussein.
Jalil said only five of his men were killed and six wounded contrary to the 12 dead figure given previously by Colonel Mohammed Ibrahim with the Joint Coordination Centre, a rapid reaction unit that includes Iraqi and US forces based in Tikrit, Salaheddine's provincial capital.
A US military spokesman based in Tikrit confirmed the operation without giving a precise insurgent casualty toll.
"There was a significant number of insurgent forces located at that site and since yesterday afternoon Iraqi and coalition forces have consolidated at that site and have control of it," Major Richard Goldenberg of the 42nd Infantry Division told AFP.
"There is an undetermined number of insurgent casualties."
About 240 members of the Iraqi ministry of interior's 1st Police Commando Battalion took part in the operation which started at about 11:00 am (0800 GMT) on Tuesday, Lieutenant Colonel Sarmad Hussein of the unit told AFP.
As the force approached the camp fighters opened fire, killing a number of Iraqi commandos and prompting US forces to send in reinforcements by air and ground, the US military said late Tuesday adding that there were no casualties among its ranks.
Leaflets posted Wednesday on buildings in Tikrit and nearby Ad-Dawr and signed by the so-called Secret Islamic Army, one of the main militant groups believed to be active in the area, said only 11 rebels were killed in the raid.
"Iraqi media, even more than western outlets, are trying to rile up public opinion against us and to offend Islam. This battle has restored our honour," said the leaflets.
The commandos have arrested dozens of suspects over the past few months in operations around Samarra and other tense spots in Salaheddin, the home province of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
They have been paraded, shamed and interrogated on state-owned Iraqiyah television in a controversial nightly show called "Terrorists in the Grip of Justice."
Saddam built one of his most elaborate palaces on Tharthar, which is sandwiched between the Tigris and Euphrates. He was known to come fishing here and he celebrated his birthday at the so-called Green Palace in 1999.
03/23/2005 15:23 GMT