BAGHDAD, 27 August 2003 — US forces launched Operation Ivy Needle yesterday in a series of raids with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of soldiers searching out bandits, gangsters and Saddam Hussein loyalists. At least 24 suspected criminals and Saddam Hussein loyalists were captured. The death toll of American troops killed in postwar Iraq surpassed the number killed in major combat, reaching 140 with the death of a soldier in a roadside bombing and a second in a separate traffic accident.

Two other soldiers were wounded when the bomb hit a support convoy in a suburb of Baghdad, the military said.

Operation Ivy Needle, launched by the 4th Infantry Division, swept up the 24 criminals near Baqubah, 70 kilometers (42 miles) north of Baghdad. Hundreds of troops, backed by helicopters, tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles chased a convicted murderer and gangster named Lateef Hamed Al Kubaishat — known as Lateef by US forces, said Col. David Hogg, commander of the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade.

Lateef escaped capture, but the military said it caught seven men it was specifically looking for and seized arms. A later raid on the home of a gunrunner, netted three men after troops surrounded the house. The three suspects tried to flee, one firing a heavy machine gun.