Posted on 05/13/2005 12:15:30 PM PDT by Marine_Uncle
QAIM, Iraq (AP) -
0513iraq American warplanes roared over desert villages while armed militants roamed this town's rubble-strewn streets Friday as more than 1,000 U.S. forces hunted down followers of Iraq's most wanted terrorist near the Syrian border.
American forces have met little resistance since the first two days of Operation Matador, aimed at clearing a region believed to be a haven for foreign fighters allied to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who have been slipping over the border from Syria, the military said. American intelligence indicates the insurgents are either in hiding or have fled the region, U.S. Capt. Jeffrey Pool said in the statement.
But in the bomb-blasted streets of Qaim, where the offensive began Saturday, fighters armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades roamed the streets, checking vehicles as they entered and left the town.
"We are trying to protect our city's entrances, and we will prevent the U.S. forces from entering the city," declared one fighter, who covered his face with a scarf.
The U.S. offensive - one of the largest since militants were forced from Fallujah six months ago - comes amid a surge of insurgent attacks that have killed at least 430 people in just over two weeks since Iraq's first democratically elected government was announced.
A U.S. soldier was killed Friday and four others wounded by a car bomb in central Iraq, the military said. The Task Force Liberty soldiers were on a combat patrol when the explosion occurred in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad.
The new interim prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, extended Iraq's state of emergency for another 30 days Friday, effective from May 3.
The emergency decree, which covers all of Iraq except the northern Kurdish-run areas, has been renewed monthly since it was first imposed Nov. 7 - hours before U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major offensive against insurgents in Fallujah. It includes a nighttime curfew and gives the government extra power to make arrests without warrants and launch police and military operations.
Violence continued Friday as snipers opened fired on the motorcade of the Interior Ministry's undersecretary, Maj. Gen. Hikmat Moussa Hussein, in western Baghdad, killing one of his guards and wounding three others, police Maj. Moussa Abdul Karim said. Hussein escaped unharmed.
Elsewhere in western Baghdad, a 30-minute gunbattle erupted when insurgents fired on an Iraqi police patrol, killing one officer and wounding three others, said police Lt. Firas Hamdan.
Gunmen shot and killed Iraqi Army Maj. Murtadha Younis Hwesh in a drive-by attack in western Baghdad's al-Amil district, a Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Three roadside bombs also exploded in Baghdad on Friday, all of them targeting American patrols, said U.S. military spokesman Master Sgt. Greg Kaufman. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but Associated Press Television News footage showed a U.S. Humvee, its hood open, consumed by flames at the scene of one blast on the highway to the airport.
North of the capital, a car bomb exploded as an Iraqi army patrol was moving through Baqouba, killing three people and wounding six, police Col. Mudhafar Mohammed said. The dead included two soldiers and a civilian, he said.
In Baqouba, car bomb blasts targeted Iraqi army patrols in separate attacks more than seven hours apart. Three people, including two soldiers, were killed and six wounded in the first attack, police said, while four soldiers sustained minor injuries in the second.
In Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, mortars slammed into an Iraqi army checkpoint, killing three soldiers and wounding three others, police said.
Near the Syrian border, residents reached by telephone in Saadah, Karabilah and Rommana said American forces were periodically shelling their villages. The U.S. military confirmed two air strikes Friday, one in a cave and the other in a village west of Saadah. The region is about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad.
On Thursday, U.S. fighter jets flattened a suspected insurgent safe house in Karabilah. The U.S. military said information gained from a "senior terrorist" captured during the operation led Marines to the building, from which they started taking fire from at least four gunmen. U.S. F-18 Super Hornet jets destroyed the building with a combination of bombs and rockets, the military said in a statement.
Gunmen were taking over the homes of Iraqi citizens to evade Marines in the area, the U.S. military said Friday.
The U.S. military has confirmed five Marine deaths so far and says about 100 insurgents have been killed in the operation. But a Washington Post reporter embedded with U.S. forces put the American death toll Thursday at seven - six of them from one squad.
The U.S. military said Friday it was receiving intelligence from local residents, fed up with the presence of foreign fighters in the region. But residents of a government-run housing complex on the outskirts of Obeidi, which saw some of the fiercest fighting in the first days of the offensive, insisted there were no foreigners among the fighters - only Iraqi tribesmen protecting their homes against U.S. forces.
"Those who are resisting are neither Arabs, nor foreigners," said Mohammed Abu Taha. "Let them (the Americans) close the border with Syria and see how the resistance will continue."
The hospital in Obeidi said 16 bodies have been brought to its morgue and some 30 people treated so far. Most of the casualties were brought in from Karabilah and nearby Rommana, said a doctor, who was too afraid to give his name.
The U.S. military denied resident reports that some areas have been without electricity and running water since the offensive began, but said regional hospital services were disrupted when a suicide car bomber attacked the hospital in the city of Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, on Saturday.
"The situation is very bad ... Most of the people have fled to the desert," said Samran Mukhlef Abed, a tribal leader in Saadah. "The Americans are all around ... and medical services do not exist here. If someone is hurt, we have to take him to cities that are far way from here and that is impossible with the situation."
Look this stuff is terribly serious. Some our guys are being KIAed, WIA, I hate that.........but it is a total riot to read: "Those who are resisting are neither Arabs, nor foreigners," said Mohammed Abu Taha. "Let them (the Americans) close the border with Syria and see how the resistance will continue."
The Arab mind! Somehow I was under the impression that this area was mostly populated by Arabs. Perhaps I am dumb. I fully realize this article contains lots of politcal horse manore, but also gives a partial update of what is happening in operation Matador.
/sarcasm
Love the way they worded the headline.
/endsarcasm
The town is not resisting, it's the jihadis that have taken over the town. Dolts!
Looks like we identified this area as the base for Iraqi terrorists and have brought in several cases of whup ass.
If they want to take it from you they will. You punks don't have the comprehensive fire power to stop a 15th rate power.
Sure you will, buddy. Like you did in Fallujah.
Yea, right. Just like they did in Fallujah.
time to "Fallujah" the place
Isn't it great how they love to relate the headline to the story. These marauding terrorists take over a town and hide among the residents to launch their attacks and the oh-so-objective journalists/editors come up with a headline saying that the border towns are resisting the US forces. The towns aren't resisting anybody; they're just trying to stay out of the crossfire.
Why is this village still standing?
Make an example of these Christian killers.
"These marauding terrorists take over a town and hide among the residents to launch their attacks and the oh-so-objective journalists/editors come up with a headline saying that the border towns are resisting the US forces."
We must always keep in mind. The area....west and east of the Euphrates on this longitude, to be a safe haven for fleeing terrorist and local Baethist insurgents. Obviouse to our Army/Marine Intel, and less obviouse to us, was the need to finally put an end to it. Perhaps our guys have waited for so long, in order to map out the whole area as to what "training camps" where still somewhat active, what key tribal leaders in all the involved towns where working with whom in the insurgency etc.. So as usual, it took time to get to the point where we would go in. Clearly a different story then the L/MSM..and their organs in the mid east newsmedias, paints that the US military is constantly outsmarted by these brave and super intelligent desert warriors.
"The towns aren't resisting anybody; they're just trying to stay out of the crossfire."
Those that are "patrolling the streets etc." are part of the insurgents. They are hard core Sunni tribes who where beholden to Saddam in times past.
".....he had them flayed alive and impaled on the stakes.."
Somehow I think our honor bound Marines think JDAM, rockets,
TOW missiles, 155 artillery, 81mm mortars, M16's, iron bombs, M240 SAW's etc, somehow are the equal of impaling the insurgents on stakes dipped in hog fat. Then again I may be wrong.
Yea, King Pul as known in the OT, sure was a tough old bird, he esentially rebuilt the Syrian forces and kicked ass, and left Shalmaneser V with a vast empire all the way down to Egypt.
"Then again, as he himself was from the neighborhood, thus he knew whom he was dealing with and what was likely to work with them. JDAMs, rockets and the rest are not as picturesque as the old-fashioned impalement, and thus their convincing power is much smaller."
Perhaps you should bump the idea up to the DoD. Guess with all the coming base clossing, we could afford to bump the next request for military budget approvals to contain a few million bucks for our timber industry (must be made from USA trees by USA companies), to start making wooden stakes for our men to carry with them. Suggest eastern hard woods such as hickory. Guess the hog fat might be a problem however, if it is not disquised as lubricant or something, but then it would lose the desired effect you seek.
Surely once instructed on Pileser's wisdom, our honorable Marines and Soldiers would have no objection to carrying an additional two pounds or so.
The men will not have to carry too much weight, as the stakes are reusable.
"The men will not have to carry too much weight, as the stakes are reusable."
Darn, why didn't I think of that. You are already saving the American taxpayer's money. Plus there is no need to have to carry a bottle of sterilization fluid, when the stake is used some twenty or more times.
Even more money could be saved by following through on TP 3rd precept and selling the survivors into slavery. The Saudis might buy.
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