-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
US Airstrikes Hit Iraqi Resistance, Called "al Qaida Safe Havens"
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[... and judging from recent reports such as a dispatch from The New
York Times yesterday, the airstrikes are essential because otherwise
the Iraqis would be wiping the floor with the US military. Yet the
mainstream media are mostly going along with the "progress" fairytale
and the nonsense about every dead Iraqi being a resistance fighter and
a member of the mostly non-existent "al Qaida." At least this article
qualifies that by noting that "Operation Phantom Phoenix" is aimed at
"what the military says" is al-Qaida. If they were truthful, they'd
call it Operation Whack-a-Mole. -NY Transfer]
AP via Yahoo - Jan 10, 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
US airstrikes hit "al-Qaida safe havens"
By CHRISTOPHER CHESTER
U.S. bombers and jet fighters unleashed 40,000 pounds of explosives
during a 10-minute airstrike Thursday, flattening what the military
called al-Qaida in Iraq safe havens on the southern outskirts of the
capital.
The strikes, carried out above approaching troops, was part of
Operation Phantom Phoenix, a nationwide campaign launched Tuesday
against al-Qaida in Iraq.
A military statement said two B-1 bombers and four F-16 fighters
dropped the bombs on 40 targets in Arab Jabour in 10 strikes. Al-Qaida
fighters are believed to control Arab Jabour, a Sunni district lined
with citrus groves and scarred by daily violence.
"Thirty-eight bombs were dropped within the first 10 minutes, with a
total tonnage of 40,000 pounds," the statement said.
The attack came a day after the U.S. military reported that nine
American soldiers were killed north of the capital in the first two
days of a new offensive.
Many militants have fled U.S. and Iraqi forces massing north of Baghdad
in Diyala province. Like Arab Jabour, Diyala is an agricultural area of
palm and citrus groves that has defied the trend toward lower violence.
The campaign's scope is nationwide but is mainly focused on gaining
control of Diyala and its most important city, Baqouba, which al-Qaida
has declared the capital of its self-styled Islamic caliphate.
Six soldiers were killed and four were wounded Wednesday in a
booby-trapped house in Diyala, the U.S. command said. It also announced
that three U.S. soldiers were killed and two wounded in an attack
Tuesday in Salahuddin province, north of Diyala.
The toll marked some of the deadliest days for U.S. forces in Iraq
since last fall. For all December, 23 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.
The blows against U.S. troops came as extremists tried to stay ahead of
the military advance. Al-Qaida fighters retreated north from Diyala,
presumably to Salahuddin, the top U.S. commander in northern Iraq, Maj.
Gen. Mark P. Hertling, told reporters in Baghdad on Wednesday.
"Operational security in Iraq is a problem," he said, noting that the
Iraqi army uses unsecured cell phones and radios. "I'm sure there is
active leaking of communication."
Hertling said his troops had killed 20 to 30 insurgents in the first
two days of the operation. It was unknown how many were killed in
Thursday's strike.
Only Baghdad province has been deadlier than Diyala the past two years,
according to an Associated Press count.
And while violence has declined over the past six months in Baghdad and
many other places in Iraq, much of Diyala has remained a killing field.
At least 273 civilians were slain in Diyala last month, compared to 213
in June. Over the same span, monthly civilian deaths in Baghdad dropped
from 838 to 182.
The reason for the surge of bloodshed is that insurgents who were
pushed out of the western province of Anbar and out of Baghdad shifted
their operations into Diyala, U.S. commanders say.
The tree-lined farm region is more difficult terrain for fighting
insurgents than the desert of Anbar, suggesting Diyala may not have
seen the last of al-Qaida in Iraq. Compounding the difficulty for the
military is the checkerboard pattern of Shiite and Sunni communities
adjacent to one another.
The military will need a period of peace and stability to meet its goal
of speeding up work on basic services and other civic projects that
commanders believe will win more allies for the American effort.
In central Baghdad early Thursday, two bombs exploded nearly
simultaneously close to a military checkpoint, killing two policemen
and one soldier, police said. Eleven others were wounded in the attack,
including four civilians.
[Associated Press writer Bradley Brooks in Baghdad and the AP News
Research Center in New York contributed to this report.]
*
=================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Our main website: http://www.blythe.org
List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
=================================================================
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (FreeBSD)
iD8DBQFHhfxKiz2i76ou9wQRAhhfAKC7ttT+VX/agq1byGiI2ufOKR+LyACgi2rK
3sbtDkIvVLdo6dF7TbrTX6E=
=eKJk
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
