Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2005 – Operation Shank wrapped up today, officials in Iraq announced. The operation, conducted in central and southern Ramadi, was the fifth in a series by the Iraqi army and coalition forces engaged in combined clearing operations to disrupt terrorism and set conditions for a successful Dec. 15 election in the provincial capital of Anbar. Shank primarily involved targeted raids conducted by Iraqi soldiers and U.S. forces against terrorist safe houses in the area. The raids resulted in the detention of four suspected members of al Qaeda in Iraq, who were held for questioning. About 200 Iraqi...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi troops launched an operation in western Iraq to clear insurgents from a suspected safe area used to make car and roadside bombs, the military said Wednesday. The campaign came as President Bush defended his Iraq policy in a major speech, saying more Iraqi security forces are increasingly taking the lead in battle but that "this will take time and patience." About 1,500 U.S. Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 500 U.S. soldiers and 500 Iraqi soldiers were taking part in Operation Iron Hammer near Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, a U.S. Marine...

Operation Iron Hammer began one month ago today, on November 12, 2003 as a more concentrated effort to neutralize pro-Saddam and terrorist forces inside Iraq. Much has been made of the fatality rate throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom, but I think it's important to put these figures into the proper perspective. From the official start of Op. Iraqi Freedom on March 20, 2003 to the present, there have been 539 Coalition deaths in Iraq. Of these, 378 (70%) were combat-related deaths due to hostile fire. The remaining 161 were due to accidental, non-combat factors. Further, for Operation Iraqi Freedom in total...

<p>BAGHDAD — The leader of a militant cell mounting attacks on U.S. forces from its Baghdad neighborhood says groups like his operate with little supervision from Ba'athist leaders but receive occasional help from outsiders who may be al Qaeda operatives.</p>

<p>The outcome of the first reported battle since the end of major combat operations in Iraq suggests victory may be closer than most Americans dare to hope.</p> <p>Iraqis wearing the black garb of the Fedayeen Saddam ambushed two convoys carrying cash to banks in Samarra, a small town in the Sunni Triangle about 60 miles northwest of Baghdad. The attacks were well planned and coordinated. The attackers were brave. The attackers died like flies.</p>

About 2,000 United States troops have launched a massive sweep south of Baghdad, looking for bombs and ground-to-air missiles as part of a two-week-old counter-insurgency operation, officers said. Two brigades from the US 82nd Airborne Division were involved in the sweep along the road towards the central Shiite Muslim pilgrimage city of Najaf, said Sergeant Brent Williams, public affairs officer with the division's Second Brigade. Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles from the US 1st Armoured Division and three companies of the new Iraqi Civil Defence Corps also took part in the operation. It was aimed at finding munitions including surface-to-air...

Official U.S. Navy file photo of an F/A-18 Hornet. View Larger Download HiRes   USS Enterprise Aircraft Strike Enemy in IraqStory Number: NNS031124-08Release Date: 11/24/2003 9:31:00 AMFrom USS Enterprise Public Affairs ABOARD USS ENTERPRISE, At Sea (NNS) -- Strike fighter aircraft from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 312, flying from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) in the North Arabian Gulf, attacked enemy targets near Kirkuk, Iraq, Nov. 19 in support of Operation Iron Hammer. After flying complex missions over both Afghanistan and Iraq in recent weeks, this strike was the carrier’s first use of precision-guided ammunition...

SAM Hits Cargo Jet, 3 Dead as Ops Continue in Iraq By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 2003 -- Baghdad International Airport was closed to all civilian traffic after a DHL cargo aircraft was hit by surface-to-air missiles Nov. 22, coalition officials said during a press conference today in Baghdad, Iraq. Three U.S. soldiers also were killed in Iraq, said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for Combined Joint Task Force 7. Kimmitt said gunfire was involved in the deaths of the soldiers, but would not comment further. Coalition officials said the airport will...

Enemy Attacks Drop 70 Percent Since Iron Hammer's Start By John D. BanusiewiczAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2003 – Enemy attacks against the coalition in and around Baghdad have dropped by 70 percent since Operation Iron Hammer began Nov. 12, the commander of the 1st Armored Division said today. Army Brig. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told reporters in Baghdad and the Pentagon press corps here by video teleconference that information gathered over several weeks -- mainly from Iraqi citizens -- and pattern analysis of enemy actions have combined to make Iron Hammer "an intelligence-based, precise combat operation."...

Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. Air Force used some of the largest weapons in its inventory to attack targets in central Iraq in an escalating crackdown on suspected guerrilla strongholds, the military said Wednesday. A pair of 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs were dropped late Tuesday near Baqouba, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, on ``camps suspected to have been used for bomb-making,'' said Maj. Gordon Tate, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division. Near the northern city of Kirkuk, fighter-bombers dropped 1,000-pound bombs on ``terrorist targets,'' he said without elaborating. It was unclear whether the airstrikes caused any casualties, Tate said....

By SABAH JERGES, Associated Press Writer The U.S. Air Force used some of the largest weapons in its inventory to attack targets in central Iraq in an escalating crackdown on suspected guerrilla strongholds, the military said Wednesday. A pair of 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs were dropped late Tuesday near Baqouba, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, on "camps suspected to have been used for bomb-making," said Maj. Gordon Tate, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division. Near the northern city of Kirkuk, fighter-bombers dropped 1,000-pound bombs on "terrorist targets," he said without elaborating. It was unclear whether the airstrikes caused any casualties,...

Will Bush exit – or escalate? Posted: November 19, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. "Watch what we do, not what we say," was the retort of Attorney General John Mitchell to reporters questioning Nixon's commitment to desegregation. Though mocked for cynicism, Mitchell was right. Even as Nixon's men were railing at the radical idiocy of forced busing for racial balance, they were desegregating six times as many schools as LBJ. Bush's tough talk, too, about staying the course – "We're not leaving until the job is done, pure and simple" – may not be a smokescreen...

BAGHDAD, Nov 18 (AFP) - The US-led coalition called in air support against targets in central Baghdad late Tuesday, deafening the capital with repeated salvoes of aerial cannon fire as it pressed its new get-tough message against the Iraqi resistance. In one of a spate of barrages that punctured the evening festivities that normally characterise the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, nearly 40 separate rounds were audible across the city. A US military spokesman said the firing was connected with Operation Iron Hammer, a massive military offensive launched in and around Baghdad on November 12, and targeted "downtown Baghdad". "The...

Iraq (AP) - U.S. fighter jets pounded suspected insurgent positions Tuesday in the largest bombardment of guerrillas in central Iraq since President Bush declared the end of major combat in May, the U.S. military said. And in Baghdad, dozens of loud explosions were heard after sundown Tuesday in what appeared to be a U.S. operation against Iraqi insurgents. A U.S. military spokesman said the 1st Armored Division, which is responsible for security in the Baghdad area, was "conducting combat operations as a continuation of 'Operation Iron Hammer,'" the new aggressive tactic of initiating attacks against insurgents before they strike. In...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military's code name for a crackdown on resistance in Iraq (news - web sites) was also used by the Nazis for an aborted operation to damage the Soviet power grid during World War II. "Operation Iron Hammer" this week launched the 1st Armored Division's 3rd Brigade into the roughest parts of Baghdad to ferret out the attackers who have killed scores of U.S. troops since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was ousted in April. A Pentagon (news - web sites) official said the name was chosen because of the "Old Ironsides" nickname...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Troops flooded a Baghdad neighborhood in a new U.S. military offensive against guerrillas Sunday, as an audiotape purportedly made by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) urged Iraqis to escalate their fight against the occupation. The U.S. military moves in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq (news - web sites) came as the Army tried to determine why two of its Black Hawk helicopters crashed in the northern city of Mosul, killing 17 soldiers in the worst single loss of American life since the war began. In its offensive, the military fired a satellite-guided missile with a 500-pound...

Sunday, November 16, 2003 Military starts nightly raids in Iraq By Franklin Fisher, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Sunday, November 16, 2003 BAGHDAD, Iraq — Anyone spending Friday night in this sprawling, ancient city on the Tigris River would have found almost no hint that things were much different than they had been a few days before.The city continues unfazed by the random bomb blasts or small-arms fire that are a daily part of Baghdad life.And the sound of a U.S. Army helicopter making a routine flight across Baghdad is no more unusual than the sight of U.S. combat vehicles that...

Paul Bremer, the U.S. proconsul, is back in Baghdad after urgent consultations in Washington, and in the field, Operation Iron Hammer has begun. For the perspective that is missing from media reports, we must see that Mr. Bremer's Washington visit was not his first; only his most publicized. He frequently jets back and forth for consultations at the highest level of the U.S. government. He was not being called on the carpet. Much balderdash has been written about the failure of Pentagon post-war planning. Three points about that: First, while there were innumerable tactical plans, it was understood from the...

(CBS/AP) U.S. intelligence agencies have identified several guerrilla groups, including one whose name calls for Saddam Hussein's return, that they now believe are behind much of the anti-U.S. violence in Iraq. Full Article. ================================================================ It's Operation Iron Hammer Time! Not only did deposed leader Saddam Hussein try last-minute overtures to avert war (this could get Saddam the nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize by Howard Dean), but now it turns out Saddam never really tried averting war after all. That was last week's double-sourced-checked, unassailable, indisputable media account of what really happened -- and why Bush is such a horrible...

<p>Not only did deposed leader Saddam Hussein try last-minute overtures to avert war (this could get Saddam the nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize by Howard Dean), but now it turns out Saddam never really tried averting war after all. That was last week's double-sourced-checked, unassailable, indisputable media account of what really happened -- and why Bush is such a horrible madman and bloody warmonger and Saddam is not. This week, the word is that the whole Iraq war was Saddam's brilliant plan all along.</p>