Posted on 06/14/2003 11:19:34 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - Hundreds of U.S. Army troops wearing night vision equipment raided the conservative town of Fallujah west of Baghdad early Sunday, hunting for suspected militia leaders and searching for illegal weapons in a major operation. Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade targeted locations where intelligence reports indicated militia operations were underway or weapons stockpiled for use against U.S. forces. The operation was called "Spartan Scorpion." The thrust against the city 37 miles from the capital Baghdad lasted only three hours - shorter than expected - and met no resistance. One of three task forces involved in the operation reported only one arrest, of a man driving during curfew hours bearing a Kalashnikov assault rifle. The 2nd Brigade entered Fallujah and the nearby towns of Habaniyah and Khaldiyah on June 4, tripling the number of U.S. troops in the area after repeated ambushes on supply convoys. The brigade's mission was to defeat anti-American militias and help restore local government offices and infrastructure. The raids across Fallujah by Task Force 3-15, Task Force 1-64 and Task Force Enforcer - using more than 1,300 soldiers - began at about 3 a.m., just three hours after a deadline for Iraqis to turn in heavy weapons under an amnesty program. On Saturday, warnings were broadcast on mosque loud speakers that the United States likely would raid Fallujah after the amnesty ended. During the raid, Iraqis sounded sirens and flashed their porch lights in apparent warning to each other that the American troops were coming. The raid against Fallujah followed an extensive action last week, dubbed Operation Peninsula Strike, against the so-called "Sunni triangle" north and west of Baghdad. That operation was completed successfully, the military said Sunday. About 60 of the 400 people detained during that search-and-seizure operation remained in custody for further interrogation, the U.S. Central Command said. Those in custody included former Iraqi generals of Saddam Hussein's army - Maj. Gen. Abul Ali Jasmin, the secretary of the defense ministry, and Brig. Gen. Abdullah Ali Jasmin, head of the Iraqi military academy. With OH-1 KIOWA observation helicopters whirring overhead at the outset of the operation, one company of about 100 soldiers searched six farm houses in the northwest side of the city. Soldiers rousted the residents from their beds, including women and children sleeping outside in the cool night air. The troops, wearing night vision devices under a bright full moon, found no weapons. Iraqi and U.S. military police said Saturday that few Iraqis were handing over weapons under the amnesty program because of the fragile security situation. On the final day before the deadline, weapons collection centers were quiet. The array of arms handed in - 162 anti-tank rocket launchers, 11 anti-aircraft weapons and hundreds of assault rifles and handguns - represented a fraction of the weapons believed to be in Baghdad's streets. As the program ended, the American civilian administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, warned that anyone found with an unauthorized weapon from Sunday on could be jailed for up to a year and fined. Iraqis were allowed to keep small arms, including assault rifles, in their homes and businesses for their own protection, but could not carry them in public, said Bremer's order, published after midnight. "No one in Iraq, unless duly authorized, may possess, conceal, hide or bury" banned weapons, said the order. Family heirlooms also had to meet the requirements. In recent weeks in Fallujah, brigade commander Col. David Perkins met repeatedly with local political, religious and business leaders to determine what needed to be done to restore the region to normalcy. Town councils and police were given authority to control the city and Perkins instructed his troops to respect the conservative Sunni Muslim customs of the region. To demonstrate the readiness of U.S. troops to help residents, a massive delivery of humanitarian aid was scheduled for later Sunday. Cargo trucks were standing by to deliver loads of medical and school supplies, as well as soccer balls and toys for children. The operation typified the kind of "carrot-and-stick" approach Perkins and other commanders have said was necessary to put down anti-American forces, but also to win the support of regular citizens. --
Yep no matter where in the world they are the bad guys are always called conservative by the US press. Not Islamists, not Baathist, not Saddamites, not terriorst, but conservatives.
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