Posted on 11/23/2004 5:56:05 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Some 5,000 U.S. Marines, British troops and Iraqi commandos launched a new offensive Tuesday aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The joint operation kicked off with early morning raids in the town of Jabella in Babil province, netting 32 suspected insurgents, the U.S. military said in a statement. Jabella is 50 miles south of Baghdad. Insurgent violence has increased in the areas south of the capital in "an apparent attempt to divert attention" away from the U.S-led assault on the militant stronghold of Fallujah, the military said. The cluster of dusty, small towns located south of the capital, has been a major area for insurgent activity. U.S. and Iraqi forces have come under repeated attacks by car bombs, rockets, and small arms fire in the area. The region has become known as a "triangle of death" for the numerous attacks by Sunni Muslim insurgents and criminal gangs on Shiites, Westerners and members of the Iraqi security services. In the past three weeks, Iraqi troops and Marines have detained nearly 250 insurgents in the area, the statement said. They have been aided by British forces from the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch Regiment, who were brought into the area from southern Basra to aid American forces in closing off militant escape routes between Baghdad, Babil province to the south and Anbar province to the west. It would be the third major military offensive against insurgents since the massive Fallujah operation, which has claimed the lives of more than 50 U.S. soldiers and injured more than 400. Earlier this month, the northern city of Mosul witnessed a mass insurgent uprising in apparent support of Fallujah's guerrillas. Some 2,400 U.S. troops were sent in to retake control over western parts of the city.
here we come again
God bless them all.
The region has become known as a "triangle of death" for the numerous attacks by Sunni Muslim insurgents and criminal gangs on Shiites, Westerners and members of the Iraqi security services.
Sunni Muslim insurgents and criminal gangs....there's a difference?
thag
Yeah, that's all we got out of the Fallujah operation--dead and wounded American soldiers. AP is crap.
Kirkuk is way north of Baghdad. See http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/iraq203/map.html
settle down Smarty. It's exactly what Bush and our Military are doing. Stacking 'em up like cordwood.
The Iraqi national guardsman who leaked this information on Zarqawi was from Kirkuk. The butcher is indeed believed to be south of Baghdad, in Tuz Khormatu and headed to Baquba.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces launched an offensive on Tuesday on a cluster of rebellious towns southwest of Baghdad in what has become popularly known as the "triangle of death," the U.S. military said.
"The joint Iraqi-U.S. force captured 32 suspected insurgents, including a number of high-interest individuals, in a series of early-morning raids some 50 miles south of Baghdad," it said in a statement.
The new offensive, dubbed Operation Plymouth Rock in an apparent reference to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, involves 5,000 American, British and Iraqi forces.
The push began in the town of Jabala but would stretch to several Sunni Muslim towns southwest of the capital where insurgents have long since banished police and rule the streets.
It comes weeks after a U.S.-led offensive to crush rebels in the Sunni town of Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad.
Violence in Sunni areas has spiked since the start of the Falluja assault, which drew condemnation from some Sunni political groups and clerics who have threatened to boycott a Jan. 30 election in protest.
Long the main power in Iraqi politics, the 20-percent Sunni Arab minority fears domination by the 60-percent Shi'ite majority. Many Shi'ites have been particularly angered by attacks on Shi'ite pilgrims passing through the area southwest of Baghdad to the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala.
The U.S. military said it was trying to cut lines of communication between rebels in the western Falluja area, Baghdad and the province of Babylon, southwest of the capital.
"In the past three weeks, Iraqi security forces and Marines have rounded up nearly 250 insurgents," it said, referring to the area of the present offensive.
"Since the joint force began operating together in mid-August, more than 600 anti-Iraqi elements have been taken out of action."
Including the DNC.
Prairie (bringing back tagline)
"clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds"
Great, provided they don't accept embedded demagogues with video cameras.
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