IRAQ: US forces detained 180 people in raids to stamp out resistance to their occupation in Iraq, as local residents reported that a huge weekend blast at an arms depot had killed at least 30 looters.
Scores of people were hurt in the explosion at a munitions store in a desert area 160 miles northeast of Baghdad on Saturday, residents said, adding that US forces arrested several looters afterwards and handed them to Iraqi police.
Assailants fired a rocket-propelled grenade on Sunday night at an army patrol in the town of Falluja, about 30 miles west of Baghdad, wounding a journalist attached to a military unit.
Three people were killed soon afterwards when their pick-up truck drove into a military vehicle helping to evacuate the reporter. At least 22 US and six British soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since war officially ended on May 1st. - (Reuters)