U.S. Launches Airstrikes in Western Iraq

From Winds of Change Blog:

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The pace of operations in Anbar is also telling. This is the fourth such operation to be executed in the past two months (including the operations in Mosul). It is clear we now have the capacity to assemble battalion sized strike forces in the Anbar province when needed. The missing piece of the puzzle is the Iraqi forces to hold the areas after they have been cleared.

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The insurgency continues to be isolated politically and geographically. The pace and tempo of operations in Anbar are likely to increase this summer and during the fall in the lead up to the next round of Iraqi elections in order to come closer to achieving the goal of defeating the insurgency.

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See the link for the complete article.

Another piece from WOC Blog:

The Demise of Abu Talha ~~ June 16, 2005,/a>

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Al Qaeda in Iraq takes another one on the chin. Following on the heals of the arrests of middlemen Abed & Raed Suleiman, Hussayn Ibrahim and Jassim al-Bazi, and 11 Zarqawi operatives in Spain, the Coalition nabs a most senior aide to Zarqawi, Abu Talha. Abu Talha is one of the major leaders of the remants of Ansar al-Islam, a senior commander in al Qaeda in Iraq [.PDF] and has been thought of a possible successor to Zarqawi. According to CENCTCOM; "Talha never stayed more than one night at any one residence, and always wore a suicide vest, saying he would never surrender." He gave up without a fight.

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His capture puts the number of known senior al Qaeda in Iraq leaders killed or captured at about 70%, and forces a younger, inexperienced fighter and leader with fewer ties to the organization to take his place. All the better to capture or kill them.

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See Full article at the link above.

Thanks for reference of forth rail and winds of change. I hope many of our members do visit these sites on a regular basis. I would only add, we should not think any of these operations are a final solution in this region. Operation Spear in essence has just completed another sweep of two towns that where focus points for operation Matador. As those keen eyes amoung us will notice the fact that a fresh bomb making factory was found in the down of Karabila. So despite the successful writings of two weeks back one can see, that we go in, kill and capture goons in a particular area, then some time later must go back in. Of course I am not being critical, in fact, the opposite. This shows that our HUMIT and other Intel gathering capabilities just continue to improve in the real time. Now envision how things will be in Al Anbar areas north of say Al Ramadi in the next six months as more battalions of now experienced Iraqi Army are integrated into the missions the Marines have stacked up.

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