HIB HIB, Iraq — The Iraqi army rounded up 30 people Thursday night and early Friday morning, including the suspected leader of a bomb-planting insurgency cell and a man suspected of murdering a mayor and plotting the assassination of his successor.

The Iraqi soldiers raided the village of Hib Hib, about six miles west of Baqouba, by themselves with only a small contingent of U.S. troops standing by on the outskirts of the village.

It was the first battalion-sized operation conducted by the U.S.-trained Iraqis in Diyala province in north-central Iraq. They previously had conducted smaller missions.

The operation, which took two weeks to plan, was supposed to include a larger group of U.S. soldiers who would have surrounded the suspects’ hideouts as Iraqis conducted the raids.

But after the larger U.S. contingent was called off the mission because of muddy, rain-soaked conditions that hampered visibility and travel, the Iraqis — members of the 204th Iraqi Army Battalion and their commander, Col. Abdullah Hassoni Abdullah — insisted on going forward by themselves.

“In [Abdullah’s] mind, it was, ‘No, I’ve got to go tonight,’” said Lt. Col. Rob Roggeman, commander of 2nd Battalion, 69th Armored Regiment, which planned the raid with the Iraqis. “I was restricted to [using] two platoons.”

The only U.S. soldiers taking part were two maneuver platoons that guarded the two routes leading out of town, and a sniper team placed atop the Hib Hib police station to keep an eye on the village and provide long-distance firepower if necessary.

Among those arrested at sites throughout the village was Manaf Saleh al-Chiali, nicknamed the “Zarqawi of Hib Hib” after the notorious fugitive. Manaf Saleh is suspected of organizing car bombings and roadside bombs.

Also arrested was Sheik Ghazi, suspected of arranging the September murder of Hib Hib’s former mayor and putting a bounty on the village’s current one.

At 11:20 p.m. Thursday, Iraqi troops in white pickup trucks rolled into the village. About 10 minutes later, a flurry of 50 to 100 gunshots rang out on the south side of the darkened town. Around midnight, three U.S. Humvees were seen from atop the police station rolling with lights out to their positions.

The village was quiet for the next two hours as, during a steady rainfall, the Iraqi soldiers surrounded the suspects’ hideouts and homes while others knocked on the suspects’ doors and placed them under arrest.

In some cases, neighbors helped point out where suspects were staying, according to a briefing conducted after the operation by Iraqi and U.S. commanders.

After 2½ hours, all the suspects had been rounded up. Blindfolded and with hands tied, they were loaded onto the backs of flatbed trucks for the cold, rainy ride to a holding cell at Forward Operating Base Scunion in Baqouba, home of the 2-69, which is part of the 42nd Infantry Division’s Task Force Liberty.

One insurgent was wounded when he was grazed in the head by a bullet, and an Iraqi soldier received a superficial head wound, military officials said.

“There was very little fight [by the insurgents],” said Maj. Will Johnson, operations officer for the 2-69.

Abdullah said his soldiers tried to refrain from kicking down doors. It was more of a “cordon-and-knock” operation.

“We try to avoid random raids but instead do organized raids,” he said. “We don’t want to create problems between the Iraqi army and the people. We want to have a good relationship with them.”

Roggeman praised the Iraqi troops.

“He [Abdullah] is very aggressive,” Roggeman said. “He wants to get it on, which is good for us.”

Military personnel later tried to verify the identities of the prisoners and interrogate them. Some could be set free, Roggeman said. Most, he added, were likely guilty based on corroborated information obtained by the two armies.

The battalion could hold the suspects at FOB Scunion for up to 48 hours, Roggeman said. Those not released would be moved to another detainment facility at the battalion’s parent unit, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, across the street at FOB Warhorse.

Detainees not released would probably be prosecuted by the fledgling Iraqi legal system, Roggeman said. He added that the U.S. military could hold the suspects indefinitely if necessary to ensure they don’t slip through cracks in the Iraqi system.

“It’s still martial law,” Roggeman said. “The military can do what it wants.”

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