Guerrillas attack US troops; fugitive held

Scores of gunmen stormed a police station and two other buildings on Saturday in Falluja, 50 km west of the capital, freeing prisoners in the latest spectacular assault on forces key to the transfer of power in Iraq. Assailants fired automatic weapons at a US military patrol in western Baghdad on Sunday, damaging a civilian vehicle travelling with the patrol, a US military spokesperson said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Shortly afterwards a roadside bomb blew up near a US convoy in an adjacent area. The blast missed the convoy but residents said US soldiers opened fire indiscriminately, wounding five people. There was no immediate comment from the military. Kadhim told Reuters Sadun was detained by police at noon on Sunday. ‘‘He is now held in my office,’’ Kadhim said. Asked if he would be handed over to the US military, Kadhim said: ‘‘We are interrogating him now, we will see what we’ll do later.’’

Qatar-based Al Jazeera showed a man it said was Sadun, sitting in a room appearing startled and clothed in traditional Iraqi dress.

Saddam’s former lieutenant, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, number six on the list of 55, is the highest-ranking official still at large. In a pair of interviews on US Sunday talk shows, US civilian ruler Paul Bremer would not say which of ‘‘literally dozens’’ of proposals he thought would be put forward and he would await word from UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

‘‘We’ve said all along we are open to alternatives. We want to stick with the date,’’ Bremer told ABC’s This Week. The call for elections has been spearheaded by Ayatollah Alial-Sistani, the most influential religious authority for Iraqi Shi’ites, who has demanded an elected government but signalled he may respect UN opinion.

Iraq and six neighbours expressed their fears of a spillover of violence from Iraq. They said in a statement it was vital to eliminate ‘‘all terrorist and other armed groups’’.

—Reuters