Posted on 08/30/2005 9:16:59 AM PDT by jmc1969
RAMADI, Iraq, Aug. 30 -- U.S. warplanes backed Sunni Arab tribal fighters on Tuesday in what tribal leaders called an unprecedented Sunni-led offensive to drive out Abu Musab Zarqawi's forces.
Three days of ongoing fighting in towns near the Syrian border killed at least 61 people, at least 56 of them Tuesday, said Dr. Ali Rawi, emergency-room director at the hospital in the largest city near the fighting, Qaim, about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Forty-two of them wore the black training-suits and athletic shoes favored by Zarqawi's fighters, Rawi said.
Others appeared to be fighters of a rival tribe or civilians, he said.
Tuesday's bombings and clashes in the towns of Husaybah and Karabilah marked some of the fiercest fighting yet in a growing rift between Zarqawi's insurgents and some tribes of their Sunni Arab base.
The clashes came after insurgents kidnapped and killed 31 men belonging to the Albu Mahal tribe because they had joined the Iraqi security forces, said Sheikh Muhammed Mahallawi, one of the tribe's leaders.
"We decided, either we force them out of the city or kill them," with the support of U.S. bombardment, Mahallawi said.
His tribe also had asked local residents not to aid or house Zarqawi's fighters, he said. Some of the local people refused the request, in a show of support for Zarqawi, he said.
Zarqawi's group said in a statement posted in local mosques that it had lost 17 men.
The fighting, while localized, met the constantly stated U.S. aim of "driving a wedge" between foreign-led insurgents--Zarqawi is Jordanian--and their Sunni Arab base. Resentment of Zarqawi's fighters earlier this month sparked clashes in Ramadi, where Sunni Arab tribes rallied to block his forces in their stated aim of driving Shiite Arabs from the city.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
WOOOHOOO!!! This is AWESOME news!! Thanks for the ping
Very good. Let's not forget that it was our airforce, special ops units, and locals fed up with the Taliban who were the key to W doing what only the Mongols and Alexander the Great had done before: conqueroring Afghanistan. (Yes, but in American fashion, having conquerored the place, we promptly set about giving them a good government and letting them go.)
The same combination may well subdue the Sunni triangle.
Very good. Let's not forget that it was our airforce, special ops units, and locals fed up with the Taliban who were the key to W doing what only the Mongols and Alexander the Great had done before: conqueroring Afghanistan. (Yes, but in American fashion, having conquerored the place, we promptly set about giving them a good government and letting them go.)
The same combination may well subdue the Sunni triangle.
Hmmm. . .I've been having touble with my 'post button' lately. That's the second unintended double post in as many days.
Dudes dressed in all black make very good targets in the desert.
yeah baby......great news
If they take him alive, they can interrogate him for a while and then "smoke" him later. It is a Win/Win for the good guys.
God bless our troops, defending our freedom.
Find out how many of em are Unix programmers
I stopped reading right there.
I stopped reading right there.
I stopped reading right there.
Stop posting right here!
You mean all those freedom fighters and minutemen are unpopular even with the Sunnis? Paging Michael Moore and Code Pink! Further evidence that those two groups (Moore qualifies as a group) don't know what the Hell they are talking about.
Thanks for the update Bob..
Great site, thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.