US says Iraqi rebels are caught in new raid on a prison

BAGHDAD -- Insurgents, apparently emboldened by a successful raid and jailbreak, laid siege to another prison facility yesterday, but police said US troops and an Iraqi unit overwhelmed the gunmen and captured 50 suspects at the prison, which is south of Baghdad.

The attack was carried out before dawn at the prison in Madain, 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, a day after 100 Sunni gunmen had freed 33 prisoners and wrecked the jail, the police station, and the courthouse in the town of Muqdadiyah, northeast of the capital.

Although the raid failed yesterday, the insurgents' ability to put together such large and well-armed bands of fighters underlined concerns about the ability of Iraqi police and military to take over the fight from US troops. About 60 militants participated in the second assault, which aimed to free more jailed insurgent fighters, police said.

The attack began with insurgents firing 10 mortar rounds. They then stormed the facility, which is run by the Interior Ministry, a predominantly Shi'ite organization that is infiltrated by members of Shi'ite militias.

Four police officers, including the commander of the special unit, were killed in a two-hour gun battle, which was subdued only after US forces arrived. Among the 50 captured, police said, was one Syrian.

The US military did not respond to a request for comment about its role in the counterattack.

Madain is at the northern tip of Iraq's so-called ''Sunni Triangle," a farming region rife with violence, retaliatory kidnappings, and killings in the underground conflict between Sunnis and Shi'ites.

Police have discovered hundreds of corpses in the past four weeks, victims of religious militants apparently conducting revenge killings. At least 21 more bodies were found yesterday, including those of 16 Shi'ite pilgrims discovered on a Baghdad highway, police said.

Millions were returning home yesterday after an important Shi'ite commemoration in the holy city of Karbala this week.

In the northern town of Beiji, meanwhile, a mortar fell on a government facility that a deputy prime minister, Ahmed Chalabi, was visiting yesterday, an aide said.

Chalabi, who was not harmed, returned to Baghdad, the aide said on condition of anonymity because he had not been authorized to release the information.

Chalabi, who is also the interim oil minister, was believed to have been visiting the refinery in Beiji, the country's largest.

As US officials stepped up pressure on Iraqi leaders to form a national unity government quickly, the United States' top military commander said he had underestimated the extent of Iraqi reluctance to come together.

''I think that I certainly did not understand the depth of fear that was generated by the decades of Saddam's rule," said General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ''I think a lot of Iraqis have been in the wait-and-see mode longer than I thought they would."

Pace said one solution was for the Iraqis to do a better job of recruiting more Sunnis into the army and for police forces to balance Shi'ite domination.

''A unit that has all [sects of] Iraqis embedded in it is better able to handle whatever kind of strife comes along," the general said.

The Bush administration views formation of a broad-based government as a first step in quelling violence and allowing the start of an American troop withdrawal this summer.

The US military has touted its progress in training the Iraqi army and police.

A leading Iraq analyst, however, said the forces remained poorly matched against the insurgency.

''The police have almost no protected vehicles, few heavy weapons similar to those of insurgents, are often located in extremely vulnerable buildings, and have weak communications. Corruption is a major issue," Anthony H. Cordesman, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote this week.