More than 200 Iraqi rebels held in past week, says America

The United States military said yesterday that it had made more than 200 arrests in the week since Saddam Hussein's capture, including suspected leaders of the resistance that has kept up its attacks on both US and Iraqi targets.

General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the arrests were a direct consequence of intelligence acquired through Saddam's arrest - presumably a reference to the briefcase found with the deposed Iraqi leader in his hiding place.

"Some of the information gleaned when we picked up Saddam Hussein led to a better understanding of the structure of the resistance from the former regime elements and we have actually picked up more than several hundred at this point," General Myers said. "We think they are some of the leadership of this insurgency, some of the cell leaders." He supplied no names or details.

In a subsequent interview, General Myers refined his numbers, saying the arrests totalled "more than 200". But he made clear that Saddam himself was supplying no information. "We've put our best interrogators on him. The only word I have is that he is not being co-operative," he added.

In the latest attacks, Iraqi insurgents blew up an oil pipeline and fired on petrol storage tanks in southern Baghdad over the weekend. At the same time, US troops were reported to be carrying out raids at various flashpoints - Fallujah, Samarra and the western town of Rawah. The US announced it had detained 111 people in Samarra alone. Of those, 15 were suspected of direct involvement in attacks on US forces.

General Myers said he expected about 100,000 US troops to remain stationed in Iraq at least until the end of next year