Rocket-propelled grenade attack injures employee for NBC News

Five border guards were returned to Syria, a U.S. spokesman said.
CAMP BOOM, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. military vehicle in the restive town of Fallujah, wounding an NBC News employee, the military said today. Three Iraqis were killed when their pickup truck slammed into a vehicle used to help evacuate the wounded man.
The attack occurred on the second day of a sweep that has netted at least 60 suspects in 20 raids across central Iraq. The sweep, dubbed Operation Sidewinder, is designed to capture Saddam Hussein loyalists and curb a wave of attacks on American soldiers.
The grenade hit an Avenger air defense vehicle -- a Humvee equipped with a missile launcher -- injuring the NBC employee traveling in the vehicle but leaving the soldiers unscathed, U.S. Central Command said.
NBC News producer Carol Grisanti identified the injured employee as Australian Jeremy Little, a television sound man. He was evacuated to a combat support hospital and was in stable condition, the Centcom statement said.
Crash
The pickup crash immediately after the shooting appeared to be an accident, though U.S. military officials did not immediately rule out that it was an attack. As the reporter was being taken away, a white pickup truck came toward the Avenger and slammed into an armored personnel carrier there to help evacuate any casualties, Centcom said.
Two of the pickup truck's civilian occupants died immediately, the statement said. The other died later from his injuries.
An Associated Press photographer at a hospital in Fallujah spoke to a man, Zoheir Ali, who said his son-in-law was among the three killed.
He said his son-in-law, Qahtan Hashem, was driving two neighbors -- a son and his sick father -- to the hospital and was rushing to beat an 11 p.m. curfew. Ali said he believed Hashem did not intend to hit the vehicles.
Sweep
Early Sunday, troops of the 4th Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse launched the military's latest in a series of major sweeps, carrying out raids across an area of central Iraq stretching from the Iranian border to the areas north of Baghdad.
The region has become "the nexus of paramilitary activity in central Iraq," the military said in a statement.
In one arrest, troops detained a colonel from Saddam's Baath Party along with five other people, the military said today, without providing details. The statement said at least 319 Iraqis have been detained in several operations, including Sidewinder, across Iraq since Sunday.
Planners of the 4th Infantry Division -- the most high-tech unit in the army -- used an array of electronic tools today to plan out further raids. Lt. Col. Mark Young, commander of the division's 3-67th Armored Battalion, said the operation is working from a slew of recent intelligence.
"It causes all units to focus on a consolidated effort all at once," he said. "The effect is like a hammer being slammed against the bad guys."
The operation is expected to last for several days, according to military officials in Camp Boom, near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Attacks
U.S. forces in central Iraq have been plagued by sneak attacks on their positions and patrols. At least 63 American soldiers have been killed in attacks and accidents in Iraq since major combat was declared over May 1.
On Sunday night, less than 24 hours after Sidewinder's start, two M-1 tanks patrolling a section of Baqouba rife with hostile fire were attacked by rocket-propelled grenades. The near-impenetrable tanks were undamaged, and the crews were unhurt, but the patrol failed to find the attackers.
There were no reports of U.S. casualties during Sidewinder, the military said, nor was there any indication that the operation had netted any of Iraq's most wanted fugitives.
The military said the raids targeted loyalists from Saddam's former Baath Party, former military leaders and terrorists suspected in anti-U.S. attacks.
Guards returned
Meanwhile, the United States has returned five Syrian border guards who were taken by American forces after being wounded during a battle on the Syrian-Iraqi border, a Syrian government spokesman said today.
With the hand-over, Damascus and Washington sought to quietly contain the fallout from an attack that could have further hurt relations already strained over the U.S.-led war and occupation in Iraq.
The battle took place June 18 when U.S. warplanes and ground troops attacked a convoy thought to include fugitive Iraqi leaders fleeing into Syria. The fighting spilled over into Syrian territory, wounding the five, though the circumstances remain unclear.
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