No outsiders held in Owja, says US

US forces in north central Iraq have found little hard evidence that foreign fighters are playing a key role in the ongoing insurgency.

Raids by US and Iraqi security forces have failed to trap foreign insurgents in the vast area north of Baghdad up to Kirkuk.

Captain Jay Freidt, a commander in the US 2/7th Infantry Division, said no outsiders had been picked up by his forces in the town of Owja Saddam Hussain's birthplace or in a vast section of the Western desert his tank company patrols.

He told Gulf News: "We have a fairly good idea who's behind the VBEIDs [vehicle borne improvised explosive devices] most are either Sunni Iraqis or foreign fighters, also Sunni.

"But we've never caught any foreign fighters. We're worried they'll gain a foothold here, that's our main concern. Some of the suicide car bombs may be the work of foreign fighters, but as yet we haven't got any proof.

"If they are foreign fighters here, they're only around for a short time and then they move out. Either that, or they come in just long enough to blow themselves up."

The US military officially classifies all insurgents anti-Iraqi Forces (AIF). Of those, there are three sub-groups in US parlance: former regime elements (FRE), Abu Musab Al Zarqawi (AMZ) linked militants and Sunni Arab rejectionists (SARs).