Posted on 11/23/2004 7:38:32 AM PST by anonymoussierra
BAGHDAD, Iraq - 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.
Iraq
Good hunting Gentlemen, and Ladies...
"No bag limit"!
When they "net 32 insurgents," are they killing them, or only detaining them?
Because imprisoning these scum merely defers the problem to a later date.
You don't ask the Orkin Man to detain your cockroaches, do you?
I heard this 3 hours ago. Is this another one?
No doubt the word is spreadly quickly amongst the bad guys that they are being systematically taken down.
They are on the run and they are vulnerable, and the Multinational forces are now fighting without political restraint.
It looks nasty, but it is what has to be done.
" 
In this undated U.S. Army handout picture, which was released on November 23, 2004, Iraqi National Guardsmen of the 106th Battalion, take cover behind a concrete barrier after hearing small arms fire at the Iraqi Police Academy in the northern city of Mosul.
Thank you
Thank you
"This is not just stepped up counter insurgency operations...this is gloves off, full scale kickass. One terrorist hideout after another.
No doubt the word is spreadly quickly amongst the bad guys that they are being systematically taken down.
They are on the run and they are vulnerable, and the Multinational forces are now fighting without political restraint.
It looks nasty, but it is what has to be done."Thank you that is good what you write!!
Thank you
this sounds more and more like my crusade against carpenter ants in 2002. Main colony destroyed, satellite colonies pop up and hunted down, perimeter secured, dead tree identified and treated, then removed.
Same one.
It's evening in Iraq...this started in the morning here.
But according the anti GW armchair generals on Free Republic, we don't have enough troops to do this.
They are as vile as the MSM.
If today, your job is to go up against 5000 US marines...it ain't gonna be a good day!
New tag line.
"I heard this 3 hours ago. Is this another one?
Same one.
It's evening in Iraq...this started in the morning here."That is truth! Thank you
Keep your head down...unless W makes another Thanksgiving appearance - then we expect to see a FReeper in one of the press pics!
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