Posted on 11/27/2004 4:03:46 PM PST by iso
NEAR LATIFIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces seized nine suspected insurgents in overnight raids on the lawless town of Latifiya, south of Baghdad, U.S. officers said on Saturday.
It was the latest in a series of operations code-named Operation Plymouth Rock, launched four days ago by U.S. Marines in a cluster of towns along the Euphrates river that have become popularly known as the "triangle of death."
A further arrest was made further north, officers said.
Iraqi police commandos from the nearby city of Hilla formed the bulk of the 200-strong force in six raids in Latifiya coordinated by the Marines, Captain Tad Douglas told reporters at the headquarters of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
"We got nine detainees," Douglas said after returning from the mission at Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad. A seized computer would also be analyzed by intelligence officers.
The suspects put up no resistance and there was no fighting, Douglas said -- typical of the operations conducted in the area recently, which follow the all-out U.S. assault on the rebel Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, upstream to the northwest.
The area around Latifiya has become a byword for danger to travelers on the main highways south from the capital. Bombs and ambushes have killed U.S. and Iraqi security forces, while foreign civilians have also been killed and kidnapped.
U.S. commanders say supporters of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s former Baath party form a hard core of up to 600 insurgents in the area, which was the center of the Iraqi arms industry and a base for an elite unit of the Republican Guard. From four to 10 times as many may be making guerrilla attacks, officers say.
The population of the Marines' area in the north of Babylon province, stretching south from Baghdad, is about 1.2 million.
Between 200 and 500 fighters may have come to the area from Falluja, some of them returning to their homes, before the U.S. offensive there, a Marine intelligence officer said, and this has contributed to an increase in attacks in recent weeks.
More than 100 people have been detained so far during this week's operation, though some will be released after questioning. In the last four months more than 600 people have been held, at least for a time.
..."...Between 200 and 500 fighters may have come to the area from Falluja, some of them returning to their homes, before the U.S. offensive there, a Marine intelligence officer said, and this has contributed to an increase in attacks in recent weeks."...
Keep up the pressure--make the insurgents think about what we are doing to them and how to avoid it instead of having time to plan what they will do to us--tactical level application of the principle of the offensive--the same thing President Bush is doing at the strategic level.
Earlier reports said AMZ had fled to Latifiya. Let's hope they got some folks who are close to him.
Are the 9 still alive?If so why.
wow 9, not a freaking dent in the problem.
I think they are close to getting AMZ..
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