Posted on 03/26/2005 7:44:26 AM PST by elhombrelibre
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. helicopters have killed several suspected insurgents and seized 131 more in a dawn raid, capturing tons of explosives earmarked for attacks on the holy city of Kerbala, officials say.
"It was a surprise operation based on intensive surveillance by military intelligence," Defence Minister Hazim al-Shaalan told Reuters on Saturday. "It was very successful."
Earlier this week Iraqi police commandos said they killed 85 militants in a raid on a suspected insurgent training camp near Baghdad, hailing it as a breakthrough against the insurgency.
Shaalan said several suspected militants were killed in the latest operation, which began late on Friday and culminated in the dawn raid just outside Kerbala, about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Baghdad.
The vast majority of the 131 captured were Iraqis, although officials said many faked Iraqi identification papers were also found. It was not clear how many people were killed.
"We carried out this operation so that visitors to Kerbala can go there in peace," Shaalan said.
Kerbala, an important Shi'ite Muslim holy city, has been targeted by militants several times in the past. Next week it will draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from throughout the region for Arbain, a major mourning ceremony.
Another defence ministry official said many of those detained were from Ansar al-Sunna, a militant group based in northern Iraq, near the border with Iran, that has carried out several high-profile attacks over the past 18 months.
"This group was intending to attack Kerbala," he said.
Seized along with the suspects were three tonnes of TNT explosive, at least three ready-made car bombs, hundreds of rocket-propelled grenades, several Katyusha rockets, more than 250,000 rounds of ammunition and other equipment.
In terms of the number of people detained and the amount of weaponry seized, it marks one of the most successful Iraqi-run operations in the past two years.
Iraqi officials say their intelligence network is improving, while Iraqi security forces are also growing stronger, giving them fresh impetus in the battle against the two-year-old insurgency.
And yet another...
Iraq's insurgents ‘seek exit strategy'
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1370852/posts
"Seized along with the suspects were three tonnes of TNT explosive, at least three ready-made car bombs, hundreds of rocket-propelled grenades, several Katyusha rockets, more than 250,000 rounds of ammunition and other equipment."
Awesome work on the part of the Iraqis!!!
Semper Fi
"Can you say, quagmire, Teddy?"
Iraq is Teddy's Waterloo.
This is starting to snowball and soon there will be law and order in that country.
They took too many prisoners.
The locals seem to be less afraid of their lawless cousins. Something the South Viets never achieved.
Poor training then.
I agree. Strange, this story isn't up on www.yahoo.com.
No story on www.google.com either. It must be top secret still.
Don't capture them, kill the Godless bastards so they don't come out again to kill Americans.
I'm thinking (but may be wrong) that the communication between one village and the next was pretty lousy in the RVN, and that this gave a tremendous advantage to the force (especially if it spoke the regional dialect) having greater ability to move without detection outside of and between villages and fewer compunctions at isolating one village at a time and scaring them into doing what they wanted. The terrorists in Iraq are increasingly unable to cut whole groups of people off and turn them into their pawns, in part because movements of forces of any size are easily detected (especially if they speak Arabic with non-Iraqi accents) and because communication within the general populace is getting better all the time.
big wheels keep on rolling.
excellent
Yes, when pigs fly, hot places freeze over, etc.
Thought you might like this ping.
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