Raids Net Suspected Terrorists in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq – As U.S. forces in Iraq faced hostile fire in the air and on the ground, raids in northern Iraq yielded several suspected terrorists, including some who might belong to the Al Qaeda terror network, military sources told Fox News.

Military sources in the field reported that members of Al Qaeda (search ) were among those rounded up by the 101st Airborne division near Mosul. But senior Defense officials at the Pentagon would not confirm that some of the captured were Al Qaeda.

The 101st Airborne division was using lists of several people they were seeking; the raids conducted to seize those people were successful, Pentagon sources told Fox.

But, the sources added, "they don't carry membership cards" so it wasn't immediately known whether or not they belong to Usama bin Laden's terror network.

And intelligence sources said they didn't have information that any members of Al Qaeda were detained recently either, Fox News learned.

Other senior officials told Fox News there was some information that the detainees might be connected to Ansar al-Islam, which in turn has links to Al Qaeda. But since the data on the raids was still being analyzed, the officials said they couldn't yet confirm the identities of those captured.

Also on Tuesday, an Army Apache helicopter (search) from Fort Carson (search), Colo., was shot down near the western Iraqi town of Habbaniyah — the third helicopter downed in the region in less than two weeks.

In Baghdad, U.S. troops reacting after a deadly roadside bomb shot at a car, killing its Iraqi driver and a 10-year-old boy, relatives said.

And in the volatile town of Fallujah (search), north of the capital, hundreds of Iraqis protested in the streets, shouting "Bush, you coward!" after U.S. troops detained a young woman while searching for a Saddam Hussein loyalist. The woman, who relatives acknowledged was handled only by female soldiers, was released after several hours of questioning.

The American AH-64 helicopter gunship was shot down in a western region near where a medevac helicopter was downed Jan. 6, killing all nine soldiers on board. A Kiowa Warrior helicopter was shot down in the area on Jan. 2, killing the pilot.

The AH-64's two-person crew was unhurt, and the U.S. military secured the area, military spokesman Col. William Darley said. "It was apparently downed by enemy fire," he said.

Habbaniyah is 12 miles from Fallujah and in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" north and west of the capital, a region that has been the center of guerrilla attacks on American forces.

In Baghdad, the shooting took place Monday at a checkpoint — the latest in a growing number of cases of civilians being shot by U.S. soldiers nearing the end of their tour before a massive rotation begins next month.

A roadside bomb went off near the checkpoint, hitting a U.S. Humvee and killing a soldier. Soldiers in another Humvee started shooting, hitting a car carrying the civilian family, said Wijdan Abdel Wahab, aunt of the slain boy.

The boy, 10-year-old Mustafa Jamal Shaikhly, and the family driver, identified only as Haider, were killed, Abdel Wahab said. Mustafa's 30-year-old mother and another aunt were seriously wounded, she said. Also in the car were the slain boy's 8-year-old brother and 6-year-old sister, who suffered minor cuts.

"The Americans have ruined an innocent family, children and women," Abdel Wahab said, distraught and weeping at the hospital. "They didn't even bother to look back at them after shooting them."

She said the family is fed up with the situation and wants to "leave Iraq because of the Americans and the (U.S.-installed) Governing Council."

The U.S. military did not confirm any of the civilian casualties. The soldier who died in the bomb blast was the 495th American killed in Iraq.

The military is investigating another apparent shooting of civilians by Americans — four Iraqi civilians, including a 7-year-old boy, killed in a taxi near Tikrit on Jan. 3. Local commander Lt. Col. Steve Russell said Tuesday it was "likely" they were shot by coalition forces.

The detention of a 17-year-old woman sparked outrage in Fallujah, a stridently anti-American city. Fallujah residents, like many in the Sunni Triangle, are religiously conservative and equate a woman's dignity with family honor.

Hundreds of people poured into the streets of Fallujah on Monday night after hearing the news and continued demonstrating Tuesday, shouting "Bush, you coward!" and "Release our woman!" They dispersed without incident by noon.

Relatives said the woman, who was married six days ago, was alone at home Monday when she was taken away by U.S. troops and kept in custody for five hours before being freed unharmed.

Maher Turki, the brother of the woman's husband, said the soldiers were looking for another of his brothers in the hope he would lead them to Khamis Sarhan (search), the leader of Saddam Hussein's Baath party in Fallujah. Sarhan is wanted by occupation forces and has a $1 million bounty on his head.

Turki said his brother, who has fled, was acquainted with Sarhan but was not an associate. Turki said the troops were not looking for the detained woman's husband.

"The girl was alone so they took her because they know our weakness. When they take our honor they know we will come to them," Turki told The Associated Press.

He refused to identify his sister-in-law, saying she was hospitalized with her husband, recovering from the shock of custody.

"But in all honesty, she was treated well. They only had women soldiers deal with her. They did not harm her. They didn't touch one hair on her head," he said.

While anti-U.S. sentiments have been widespread in Sunni (search) areas, the occupation authorities also face anger in southern Shiite (search) towns over the hardships persisting nine months after Saddam's regime collapsed. Shiites are a majority in Iraq but were long suppressed by Saddam.

Clashes resumed Tuesday in Kut between protesters and Ukrainian troops, with sporadic gunfire heard at the western edge of the city, a day after the Ukrainians fired bullets in the air to control a riot by hundreds of people demanding food and jobs.

The demonstrators also hurled explosives on Monday, injuring one Ukrainian soldier and four Iraqi policemen, said Lt. Zafer Wedad, an Iraqi police official.

The violence in Kut, 90 miles southeast of Baghdad, followed a similar demonstration in another southern city, Amarah, on Sunday.

Unrest among the Shiites has grown as their spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani (search), has spoken out against a U.S.-backed formula for transferring power to the Iraqis.

But the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, said Monday the Nov. 15 pact is "the best way forward to return sovereignty to the Iraqi people."

Fox News' Bret Baier, Ian McCaleb, Dana Lewis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.