Iraqi forces said yesterday they had failed to find any hostages or signs of killings after regaining control of a town in a lawless area near Baghdad where Sunni gunmen were reported to be threatening to kill Shiite residents.
The three-day standoff around Madain, fueled by rumors, suspicions and sharply conflicting reports, had threatened to spiral into all-out national crisis as Sunnis and Shiites negotiate on the formation of a new government.
A 1,500-strong Iraqi force backed by US troops moved into the town yesterday, finding its streets deserted, shops shuttered and most of the 7,000 residents hiding inside their homes, according to a correspondent embedded with the US military.
"The whole city is under control. We've secured houses where people said there were hostages. We could not find any [hostages]. I don't think we'll find any," Iraqi Brigadier General Mohammed Sabri Latif said.
"I think they [gunmen] ran away to the other side of the river. Possibly they took hostages with them. There are no signs of any killings," Latif said.
The military operation followed reports that Sunni gunmen had abducted up to 80 people and had threatened to kill them unless all Shiites left the town on the Tigris river 30km southeast of Baghdad.
"The hostages were no more than nine, but the media channels and some political parties made a huge issue of it" which forced us to act, said Major General Adnan Thabet.
The hostage issue is "just a tribal problem," Thabet said, but did not elaborate.
Earlier reports had suggested there had been some tit-for-tat kidnappings between tribes in the area, considered to be a haven for bandits and insurgents.
On Sunday, one defense ministry official had said that police had entered Madain, met "severe resistance" from insurgents but recaptured half the town and freed as many as 15 families.
But this was later denied by other officials who denied any hostages had been found and acknowledged that an all-out offensive against the gunmen had been postponed.
Abdel Salam al-Kubeissi, an official on the Sunni Committee of Muslim Scholars, which was involved in negotiations between local people and the government, told reporters that "as far as we know, there were no hostages."
"They [militants] have either left or just laying low," according to US Lieutenant Colonel Michael Johnson. "The Iraqis have secured most of the town, from here on there will be a police presence" in the town.
Johnson said Iraqi forces were pushing south of the town along the Tigris to sweep through villages in the region.
Iraqi forces said they had found a "terrorist training camp" in the town, suggested there had been up to 100 insurgents in the area while authorities said they had found two car bombs, ready for use, at a local farm.
According to one civilian, Ayad Tallal, 22, who arrived in the town on Saturday to visit relatives, gunmen had been terrorizing the town for weeks, threatening to kill anyone who collaborated with the authorities.
"When I arrived the city was empty. It was like a ghost town. I think the mujahedeen [militants] had already left. My relatives were very upset," he said.
He said he was briefly detained by Iraqi police and the correspondent saw several other men being held for questioning by authorities.
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