U.S. Kills 75 Insurgents in Iraqi Offensive

FOXNews/AP ^ | May 09, 2005

[nuconvert]

U.S. Kills 75 Insurgents in Iraqi Offensive

Monday, May 09, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. forces have launched an offensive against insurgents in western Iraq near the Syrian border, and about 75 militants were killed in the first 24 hours, the military said Monday.

It said the offensive, being conducted with U.S. air support in a desert area of Anbar province north of the Euphrates River (search), was targeting a sanctuary for foreign insurgents and a smuggling route.

The brief U.S. statement didn't say when the offensive by Marines, sailors and soldiers had begun, how many were included, or whether there had been any American casualties.

The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that more than 1,000 U.S. troops supported by fighter jets and helicopter gunships had attacked villages in and around Obeidi (search), a city near the Euphrates in western Iraq not far from the Syrian border, on Sunday.

The report, by a journalist embedded with the U.S. forces, said the offensive "was seeking to uproot a persistent insurgency in an area that American intelligence indicated has become a haven for foreign fighters flowing in from Syria."

It said the offensive was expected to last for several days.

Recently, U.S. troops appear to have stepped up their attacks on suspected insurgent strongholds, including some near the Syrian border, where foreign militants may be entering the country to attack coalition forces.

For instance, on Sunday, coalition forces killed six insurgents and detained 54 suspects in raids targeting terror group Al Qaeda in Iraq in Qaim (search), a city near Obeidi, the U.S. military said.

Insurgent violence killed eight U.S. service members in Iraq over the weekend, raising the death toll to more than 300 from a torrent of attacks in Iraq since April 28, when a new Iraqi Cabinet was approved

[Skooz]

Is it possible to be a more pathetic loser than you?

Answer: NO. It isn't.

Back to the fascists at DU, loser.

[cibco]

I filed a zot on this ingrate.

[Pappy Smear]

A simple zot will do.

[kerouacbal]

delete this and remove this ass please

[EricT.]

Thank you for removing that disgusting garbage. It says alot about the DU crowd that they know where to find pictures like that.

[mikegi]

Looks like we're trying to choke off the supply of Arab terrorists flowing into Iraq. A good thing.

[Dilbert56]

They never want to talk about how many bad guys were killed in the fighting.

Couldn't agree more. Just sent this letter to my hometown paper:

The May 2nd paper listed the accomplishments of our enemies since the interim Iraqi government was formed on April 28th. Not reported was how, during that same period, coalition forces killed 12 and captured more than 50 enemy fighters with their weapons and ammunition. On May 1st, they foiled a car-bombing attempt in Baghdad, rescuing the driver. His family had been kidnapped to coerce his participation. Terrorists resort to these kinds of tactics, not insurgents.

Americans also repaired water pumping stations, distributed supplies to nomadic families, helped victims of a mortar attack and rescued 89 people from drowning.

Such slanted reporting is nothing new. Coverage on the second anniversary of Baghdad’s fall featured a protest march by 100,000 supporters of Muqtada Al Sadr. Only later did we find out Al Sadr’s supporters were less than a tenth of that crowd. The rest were championing other causes, including the execution of Saddam Hussein. By then, of course, it was too late to erase the headlines.

If the wire services carry only the pro-terrorist side of this war, the Press should find additional sources to give us the rest of the story.

[wingsof liberty]

No no, this cant be right. Insurgents dont come from Syria - Basher Assad has told the U.S. this several times. I mean, its not like he never lied or anything... (mega-sarcasm)

[wingsof liberty]

Didnt Pope Benedict just deliver the message to the MSM "Be careful how you report news so as not to appear biased as this could result in a loss of lives." Like the MSM would ever change their ways just because the Pope asked them to...

[jveritas]

Insurgent violence killed eight U.S. service members in Iraq over the weekend, raising the death toll to more than 300 from a torrent of attacks in Iraq since April 28, when a new Iraqi Cabinet was approved...

The utterly biased AP is writing the text to make people believe that 300 US soldiers were killed in Iraq since April 28th. They always expect that the people who are reading this story are idiots, but they do not know that idiots do not pay attention to the news and they do not read news, and why the AP do not know this? because the AP as well as the liberal media is made up of idiots.

[nuconvert]

"The utterly biased AP is writing the text to make people believe that 300 US soldiers were killed in Iraq since April 28th"

Yup. That didn't get by me either.

"the AP as well as the liberal media is made up of idiots"

Yup.

[hinckley buzzard]

One has to wonder, why this wasn't done months ago. The infiltration from Syria has been an open secret basically for ever.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the ping..

It is about time we stopped the inflow of these terrorists.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

AP report from :

U.S. Offensive in Western Iraq Kills 75

**********************************************************

Today: May 09, 2005 at 9:18:42 PDT

U.S. Offensive in Western Iraq Kills 75

By BASSEM MROUE
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -

0509iraq American troops backed by helicopters and war planes have launched a major offensive against insurgents in a remote desert area near the Syrian border, and about 75 militants were killed in the first 24 hours, the U.S. military said Monday.

Marines, sailors and soldiers from Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, were conducting the offensive in an area north of the Euphrates River, in the al-Jazirah Desert, a known smuggling route and sanctuary for foreign insurgents, the military said.

The brief statement did not specify when the operation began, how many troops were involved or whether there had been any American casualties.

The offensive is one of the largest involving U.S. troops since American and Iraqi forces took over the insurgent bastion of Fallujah in November. Two weeks ago, about 1,000 U.S. soldiers completed a four-day operation against insurgents north of Baghdad where a civilian helicopter was shot down.

The offensives are part of stepped-up raids on suspected hideouts across the country, including a number near the Syrian border, where U.S. and Iraqi officials say foreign militants are entering the country to attack coalition forces.

The Chicago Tribune reported that more than 1,000 U.S. troops supported by fighter jets and helicopter gunships raided villages Sunday in and around Obeidi, about 185 miles west of Baghdad, in an operation expected to last several days.

The report, by a journalist embedded with the U.S. forces, said the offensive "was seeking to uproot a persistent insurgency in an area that American intelligence indicated has become a haven for foreign fighters flowing in from Syria."

Some U.S. forces were able to conduct limited raids north of the Euphrates and predator drones provided surveillance Sunday, but most troops were stuck south of the waterway as engineers tried to build a pontoon bridge there, the Tribune said.

It also quoted some Marines as saying residents of one riverside town turned off all their lights at night, apparently to warn neighboring towns of the approaching U.S. troops.

"Our analysis is that there's a foreign fighter flow from Syria," Col. Stephen Davis, commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team 2, told the Tribune. "The trademark of these folks is to be where we're not. We haven't got north of the river for a while."

On Sunday, the U.S. military said coalition forces killed six insurgents and detained 54 suspects in raids targeting the country's most feared terror group, al-Qaida in Iraq, in Qaim, a Syrian border town about 200 miles west of Baghdad. Coalition forces said they acted on information received from Mohammed Amin Husayn al-Rawi, an associate of Iraq's most-wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Rawi was captured April 26, the U.S. military said Saturday.

The crackdown came amid insurgent violence that has killed more than 310 people since April 28, when a new Iraqi government was announced with seven positions left undecided. At least nine American servicemen were killed over the weekend.

Iraq's interim National Assembly on Sunday approved six more Cabinet members, including four more Sunni Arabs. But the Sunni man selected as human rights minister turned down the job because he didn't want to be selected on a sectarian basis, tarnishing the Shiite premier's bid to include the disaffected minority believed to be driving the insurgency.

The five new members were sworn in Monday. The rest of Cabinet also repeated the oath of office after new language was added at the request of Barham Salih, the Kurdish planning and development cooperation minister.

The ministers pledged their allegiance to a "federal, democratic" Iraq, which Salih said brought the wording of the oath in line with language in Iraq's transitional law.

Iraq's two main Kurdish factions, which hold 75 seats in the 270-member National Assembly, are pressing for a federal government that would give strong autonomy to the Kurdish north.

When complete, the new government is expected to include 17 Shiite ministers, eight Kurds, six Sunnis and a Christian. Three deputy premiers have been named - one each for the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, with the fourth held open for a woman.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari pledged Sunday to take "all necessary measures" to restore security in Iraq and said the government could impose martial law, if necessary, to fight the insurgents.

Violence continued Monday with at least three Iraqis killed in a suicide car bombing at police checkpoint at a busy Baghdad intersection, said police Maj. Mousa Abdul Karim. The dead included two policemen and a civilian. Six other policemen and three civilians were wounded, he said.

At least three other car bombs exploded in Baghdad later Monday, including one that wounded an unidentified number of Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint, said U.S. military spokesman Master Sgt. Greg Kaufman.

On the outskirts of Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, residents found five corpses on a street Sunday. Associated Press Television News footage showed the victims, including one wearing a military uniform, lying on the side of the road near three charred cars. It was not immediately clear how or when they died.

The U.S. military said it had conducted several raids Sunday in and around Baghdad, detaining 13 suspected insurgents, some armed with rocket- propelled grenades.

Two of the suspects were captured in a raid aimed at the leader of a terror cell believed to have plotted an April 20 assassination attempt against former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the military said. Allawi was unhurt, but at least one policeman was killed and two wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded near a police checkpoint as his convoy drove him home.

On Sunday, the Iraqi government said its security forces had captured another al-Zarqawi associate, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He was identified as Ammar Adnan Mohammed Hamza al-Zubaydi, also known as Abul Abbas. Al-Zubaydi is accused of planning an April 2 assault by dozens of insurgents who blew up car bombs and fired RPGs outside Abu Ghraib prison, the Iraqi statement said.

The American casualties included a U.S. soldier who was killed by gunfire Sunday in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, the military said.

The worst of the weekend fighting occurred in Haditha late Saturday, when insurgents occupied a civilian hospital and used gunfire, RPGs, a suicide car bomb and a roadside bomb to kill three U.S. Marines and a sailor, the military said.

On Monday, the U.S. military accused insurgents of using patients as human shields during the four-hour battle in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, even after one of their bombs set fire to the hospital. An unspecified number of militants were killed, the military said.

At least 1,600 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Meanwhile, Australia's top Muslim cleric left Monday for Baghdad to try to win the release of an Australian hostage.

Militants who kidnapped Douglas Wood, 63, who lives in Alamo, Calif., released a video Friday demanding that Australia start pulling its troops out of Iraq within 72 hours. The militants did not specify what time the deadline expires, or what they will do if their demand isn't met.

--

[nuconvert]

Thanx

[finnman69]

Hmm, the Muj Michael Moore Minutemen are getting their asses handed to them in the field and the arab press now, especially the disgruntled Sunnis.


IRAQ: Changing the Rules of the Blame Game

http://www.strategypage.com/fyeo/qndguide/default.asp?target=Iraq

May 8, 2005; The Sunni Arab media in the Middle East has gotten tired of blaming the United States for everything that doesn't work in Iraq. More and more stories blame Iraq's Sunni Arabs for the terrorism, corruption and tyranny in Iraq, and other parts of the Middle East. This is part of a trend, the growing popularity of Arabs taking responsibility for their actions. This is a radical concept in Middle Eastern politics. For several generations, all problems were blamed on other forces. The list of the blameworthy was long; the United States, the West, Colonialism, Infidels (non Moslems, especially Jews), Capitalism, the CIA, Israel, Democracy and many others too absurd to mention. Giving up this crutch is not popular in the Middle East. Oil wealth has made it possible to sustain, for decades, the belief of all these conspiracies to keep the Arab people down and powerless. But the invasion of Iraq, and the overthrow of Saddam, forced Arabs to confront their long support for a tyrannical butcher like Saddam. Here was a dictator who knew how to play the blame game, and position himself as an Arab "hero." Saddam's supporters turned to terrorism to restore themselves to power. Two years of killing Iraqis has shamed an increasing number of Arabs into admitting that this is an Arab problem, not the fault of the United States (who, in the most popular delusion, should have waved a magic wand and made all problems in Iraq disappear.) Even the Sunni Arab media are in awe of the Iraqi Shia and Kurds, for not slaughtering large numbers of Sunni Arabs in response to the terrorism, or simply as revenge for centuries of torment at the hands of Sunni Arabs.

[finnman69]

check out what the barking LW moonbats have to say:

LynnTheDem (1000+ posts) Mon May-09-05 04:59 AM

1. Propaganda and bullsh*t; What the US is now famous for

The US won't count dead Iraqi civilians.
But they will count the dead & label them all "insurgents" when needed.

How do aircraft know who is insurgent, who is innocent? Bomb em all and let bush sort them out. (ie they're ALL "insurgents" then)

"INITIAL REPORTS INDICATE APPROXIMATELY BELIEVED" ...CYA much?

America just killed 75 people who had never done anything to the USA, had never threatened the USA, and who are now fighting foreign invaders who attacked & destroyed & now occupy their country.

But I guess that REALITY headline wouldn't go over well with the Truth-Hater rightwingnuts.

HEY HEY BUSH AND BLAIR, HOW MANY KIDS WILL YOU KILL OVER THERE!

[dangus]

I have seen nothing like 10,000 rpeorted kills over the past few weeks... much closer to a couple hundred. But I would say in general that several Iraqi government reports have shown to be huge exaggerations, later drasticallt revised downward by US estimates. So I trust the US estimates... relatively speaking.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

BBC report:

*******************************************

Last Updated: Monday, 9 May, 2005, 10:51 GMT 11:51 UK

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version

US forces 'kill Iraq insurgents'

Baghdad has been facing almost daily car bombings

The US military in Iraq says it has killed 75 insurgents, including foreign fighters, in a desert region close to the border with Syria.

The operation, in Anbar province, involved air and ground forces, the military said in a statement.

A day earlier, the US said it had killed six insurgents and detained 54 suspects in raids in the area.

In the capital Baghdad, at least three people were killed in a suicide car bomb at a police checkpoint.

Two police officers and a civilian died in the early morning blast.

About nine people were wounded when the bomber - who also died - drove into two police cars at a checkpoint in southern al-Darwish district.

The capital has faced almost daily car bombings over the last few weeks, as Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari struggled to form a government.

Parliament finally approved the key defence and oil ministry posts on Sunday. The new defence minister is Saadoun al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab. Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, a Shia, fills the oil ministry portfolio.

The cabinet was sworn in for a second time on Monday after complaints from Kurdish leaders that the oath read by ministers last week had missed out a reference to a "federal Iraq".

Post refused

The US did not say if any of its troops were killed or injured in the operation in Anbar province, in the west of Iraq.

NEW MINISTERS Defence: Dr Saadoun al-Dulaimi (Sunni) Oil: Dr Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum (Shia) Deputy prime minister: Abid Mutlak al-Jubouri (Sunni) Electricity: Dr Mohsen Shlash (Shia) Industry: Usama al-Najafi (Sunni) Full list of ministers

The statement said the region was "a known smuggling route and sanctuary for foreign fighters".

Earlier this month, the commander of US forces in the Gulf, Gen John Abizaid, accused Syria of ignoring US demands to stop foreign fighters crossing into Iraq.

It is hoped that with credible Sunnis in the cabinet, the Iraqi government will be able to rob the insurgency of any support it enjoys among the disaffected minority.

But in a setback for the government, Hashim al-Shible, a Sunni Arab, turned down the post of human rights minister on Sunday, saying he did not want to take on a post purely on the basis of his ethnicity.

Three months after the election, Mr Jaafari has indicated he is seeking a woman for the other vacant cabinet job - a deputy prime minister.