Personally, I prefer operation "Comes Up of Iron".
Posted on 01/02/2004 2:05:16 PM PST by HAL9000
Regular artillery shootings Friday evening in Baghdad
Shootings of heavy artillery and automatic weapons were heard Friday evening in the Iraqi capital, according to correspondents of the AFP.
"I think that it is about the continuation of the operation +Poigne of fer+", a spokesman of the American army, questioned by the AFP declared.
Regular artillery shootings were heard since 22H30 (19H30 GMT). Planes or helicopters flew over the city.
The American operation "Comes up of Iron", started on December 24, is directed against the guerrilla anti-American and consisted of bombardments on suspect positions, mainly in the south of the Iraqi capital.
"the majority of these operations are carried out in response to the shootings of mortars, on sites used like bases of shootings or like places of appointment (of the guerrilla, note)", to Friday afternoon the American General Mark Kimmitt had indicated, commenting on the operation" Comes up of iron ".
Since the beginning of this operation, 185 people were stopped and 14 cells of the guerrilla dismantled, had indicated to Wednesday the American General Martin Dempsey.
Blasts rock Baghdad
Agence France-Presse
HEAVY artillery and cannon fire rocked Iraq's wartorn capital today in an extension of a week-old US counter-insurgency offensive.
"That is a continuation of the ongoing Operation Iron Grip," a military spokesman said of the Baghdad bombardment this morning (AEDT).
US aircraft roared overhead, and deafening bangs shook the capital.
Iron Grip, launched on December 24, has targeted rebel hideouts used for firing mortars on the US-led coalition's fortress-like headquarters on the west bank of the Tigris.
The US offensive has primarily been on the outskirts of Baghdad in the southern suburb of Dura.
The commander of the US First Armored Division that patrols the capital, Brigadier General Martin Dempsey, said on Wednesday that the operation had already resulted in the arrest of 185 suspected guerrillas and the disabling of four of 14 insurgent cells in Baghdad.
Personally, I prefer operation "Comes Up of Iron".
Sounds pornographic
No wonder the French military planners get no respect. Operation "+Poigne of fer+" just doesn't have the professional military sound of Operation Iron Grip.
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