BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. military police hunting for Baath Party followers plotting to kill them didn't need to travel far Saturday.
They found the plotters meeting in the dean's office of the Iraqi police academy that serves as the well-guarded American law enforcement headquarters, U.S. officials said.
A U.S.-led raid netted 14 Baathists, including the dean, as they were plotting to blow up police outposts and assault U.S. forces, American military police said.
"They were right here," said U.S. Army Capt. Steve Caruso, who led the raid on the dean's office Saturday morning, just a few yards from where he usually sits.
"They were supposedly working on curriculum for a police force that does not exist," he said. "They were really working on attacking police stations and soldiers." The police academy was for decades a stronghold of Saddam Hussein's tyranny where officers were taught their brutal ways. Members of Saddam's ruling Baath Party headed the academy.
About a month ago, U.S. military police units took over the academy and now use it as a launching area for joint patrols with re-emerging Iraqi police units.
Each morning, as dozens of U.S. troops waited in the parking lot for assignments, Baathists walked past them on their way to second-floor offices. Sometimes they nodded and waved, Iraqi police said, but often they scurried past the assembled officers and soldiers.
At daily briefings in a ground-floor conference room, the Americans and Iraqi commanders assigned the day's patrols, including those searching for weapons, Baathists and other Saddam loyalists.
Across a courtyard and upstairs on the top floor, Baathists who were high-ranking police officers before the war looked down on the American-run meetings. They worked on plans to kill U.S. soldiers and to stage sieges of police precincts, the Americans said.
"I worried all the time about someone throwing a grenade and hurting the Americans," said Iraqi police Col. Ahmed Kadhim, who would stand at the window and look warily to the second floor during morning meetings.
"To have them kill American soldiers, that would cause big trouble, and people would hear about it on the radio," he said.
Even so, Kadhim said he kept his suspicions about Baath activities to himself even as other officers complained to the international press that senior Baath police officials remained in the academy.
Officers being trained by the Americans kept information to themselves for fear of retribution from the Baathists at the police helm.
"I knew the Americans were not going to act to catch them until they had evidence," Kadhim said.
The day was marked by another tragedy. Three U.S. soldiers were killed and six more injured in a traffic accident in northern Iraq, the military said Saturday.
The statement said the soldiers were part of a unit attached to the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, and that the accident occurred on the road between the cities of Mosul and Tikrit. It said they were traveling in a "light-medium tactical vehicle," the military said.
Two of the soldiers died at the scene, and one died while undergoing treatment at the 21st Combat Support Hospital, the military said.
It gave no further details, adding that the names of the troops involved would be released after their families are notified.
Americans seemed mostly oblivious to the dangerous Baath activities at their headquarters, Kadhim said. The threats so near U.S. soldiers show how difficult it is to weed out Saddam loyalists, the Americans said.
"If you are a member of the top few ranks and you are going to be weeded out, you are going to lie," said Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police chief brought in to advise coalition forces on law enforcement.
Last Tuesday, American forces received a tip that Baathists were in their camp. They found evidence in the dean's office of covert activities. On Saturday, they barged into a meeting and found detailed notes that included names and plans for violence, the military said.
Those held include the dean, Maj. Gen. Akram Abdul Razak, five brigadier generals, three colonels and a lieutenant colonel.
Iraqi police were pleasantly surprised to see the Baathists led off to jail, the Americans said.
"There was huge applause by police officers," Kerik said.