U.S. Punches Through Deserts in Iraq (Operation Matador)

U.S. Punches Through Deserts in Iraq
By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer
11 minutes ago

Beiji refinery workers attempt to extinguish a burning pipe line fire after militants set fire to Iraq's largest oil refinery in al-Fath, about 15 km ( 10 miles ) north of Beiji, Iraq, Tuesday, May 10, 2005. (AP Photo/Bassem Daham)

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces punched through remote desert outposts Tuesday in pursuit of followers of Iraq's most wanted terrorist after meeting stiff resistance from militants hidden in basements, on rooftops and inside sandbag bunkers in a lawless region near the Syrian border.

At least three Marines have been killed and fewer than 20 wounded in Operation Matador, one of the biggest U.S. offensives in Iraq since militants were driven from Fallujah six months ago, the U.S. military said.

U.S. forces said as many as 100 insurgents were killed in the first 48 hours of the operation — many of them trapped under rubble as fighter jets and helicopter gunships pounded the remote desert region. But Marine commanders told The Chicago Tribune that resistance had been unexpectedly intense.

Meanwhile, Italy's foreign minister suggested Tuesday that Italian troops would remain in Iraq until at least early next year despite renewed domestic pressures for withdrawal after the killing of an Italian intelligence agent by U.S. soldiers in Baghdad.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi had previously said Italy would remove an initial 300 soldiers from its 3,000-strong contingent beginning in September, but he stressed a full pullout would depend on security conditions and consultation with the U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi officials.

Gunmen kidnapped the provincial governor Tuesday and told his family he would be released when U.S. forces withdraw from Qaim, the town 200 miles west of Baghdad where the offensive began late Saturday.

U.S. forces believe the main body of insurgents in Iraq have moved from their former strongholds in Fallujah and Ramadi to points north and west, Marine Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday. They appear to be well-equipped and trained.

"There are reports that these people are in uniforms, in some cases are wearing protective vests, and there's some suspicion that their training exceeds what we have seen with other engagements further east," he said.

U.S. soldiers built a pontoon bridge across the Euphrates River to push into the northern Jazirah Desert, believed to be a haven for followers of militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Intelligence reports indicated insurgents were using the vast region, a known smuggling route, as a staging area where foreign fighters crossing into Iraq from Syria received weapons and equipment for attacks in the key cities of Baghdad, Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul, U.S. Marine spokesman Capt. Jeffrey Pool said.

But as Marines prepared to cross the river Sunday, they started taking mortar fire from the nearby town of Obeidi, 185 miles west of Baghdad, according to a Chicago Tribune reporter embedded with the assault.

When U.S. forces moved into the town, they found insurgents were prepared for a fight. Sandbag bunkers were piled in front of some homes, and fighters were positioned on rooftops and balconies, according to a Los Angeles Times reporter also embedded with the troops. The insurgents used boats to ferry weapons across the river.

At one point, the paper said, a Marine walked into a house and a fighter hiding in the basement fired through a floor grate, killing him. Another Marine suffered shrapnel wounds when an insurgent threw a grenade through the window of a house where he was retrieving a wounded comrade, the Los Angeles Times said.

On Monday night, insurgents attacked a Marine convoy near a U.S. base in Qaim with small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, roadside bombs and two suicide car bombers, Pool said. One explosion damaged a Humvee, and a suicide car bomber was destroyed by a U.S. Marine tank, but no Marines were killed and 10 insurgents surrendered in the incident, Pool said in a statement Tuesday.

Navy and Marine F/A-18 Hornet strike jets strafed the tree line, as Marine Cobra attack helicopters fired rockets into insurgent hideouts, the Chicago Tribune reporter said.

By Monday afternoon, Marines had pushed across the bridge onto the northern banks of the Euphrates, Pool said. On Tuesday, they moved through sparsely populated settlements along a 12-mile stretch to the border, meeting only light resistance, according to the Tribune reporter.

Residents reached by telephone in the area reported some fighting Tuesday in Obeidi and the two nearby towns of Rommana and Karabilah. But they said frightened residents were taking advantage of the relative lull to flee the Qaim area.

Adel Izzedine left the town on foot with his wife and three children, walking 6 miles through agricultural fields to reach a nearby village where the family caught a taxi for the remaining 43 miles to Rawa.

"There are gunmen in the city, but there are also a lot of innocent civilians," said Izzedine, who was looking for a mosque or a school in which to spend the night. "We are living the same misery that Fallujah lived some time ago."

Syria has said it is arresting would-be infiltrators and doing what it can to control the porous border with Iraq.

Gov. Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi was seized as he drove from Qaim to the provincial capital of Ramadi on Tuesday morning, his brother, Hammad, told The Associated Press.

The kidnappers later telephoned the family and said he would only be released when U.S. forces pull out of the Syrian border town, Hammad Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi said.

Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said: "We don't respond to insurgent or terrorist demands."

A Japanese man working for an international security firm disappeared in the same region after his convoy was ambushed near Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad.

A Sunni militant group claimed on its Web site Monday that it had kidnapped Akihiko Saito, 44. But Japan's defense chief, Yoshinori Ono, said the attack would not affect the country's deployment of 550 troops on a humanitarian mission in southern Iraq. The victim's family supported that pledge Tuesday.

The U.S. offensive comes amid a surge of militant attacks across Iraq, targeting the U.S, military, Iraqi security forces and civilians, since the country's first democratically elected government was announced April 28.

Three U.S. Marines were killed in central Iraq on Monday, one by a homemade bomb in Nasser Wa Salaam, 25 miles west of Baghdad, and two others by indirect fire in Karmah, 50 miles west of the capital, the military said. At least 1,606 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

On Tuesday, at least two car bombs exploded in downtown Baghdad, targeting U.S. and Iraqi troops. At least nine Iraqis were killed and 19 wounded in the two attacks, the Interior Ministry said. One attack also wounded three American soldiers, said U.S. military spokeswoman Capt. Kelly Lewis.

Also Tuesday, Iraq's parliament appointed a 55-member committee of legislators from the country's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish groups to draw up the country's new constitution. Political leaders spent the first three months after landmark Jan. 30 elections trying to form a government and now have until Aug. 15 to complete their main task, drafting a constitution which must then be approved in a national referendum.

AMERICAN MORNING - More Than 1,000 U.S. Forces Battling Insurgents Near Syrian Border

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Other stories making news today, three U.S. Marines died in operations west of Baghdad. And a car bomber blew himself up outside a police station in Baghdad today. Only the bomber was killed. But at least seven Iraqis died in a separate car bombings. Three more Marines have been killed in a large-scale operation.

More than 1,000 U.S. forces are battling insurgents near the Syrian border for a third day.

Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon for us this morning.

Barbara, good morning to you. How are they telling you the offensive is going so far?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is difficult at the moment, Soledad. The fighting continues, as you say. More than 1,000 troops in Operation Matador, as the military is now calling it, moving through western Iraq, against those foreign fighters that they have known have been out there. They tell us more than 100 insurgents have been killed.

But a key development today in the U.S. military strategy, as we look at that map. What they tell us is that U.S. troops have now secured a key bridge over the Euphrates River. That, they believe, will keep pushing the insurgents north, keep them from crossing south of the river and staging more attacks.

Now, as the fighting goes on, there is a reporter embedded with those troops, a reporter for "The Chicago Tribune," James Jenega. We spoke to earlier this morning. He recounted, as he moved with those U.S. forces, how the fighting unfolded over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES JENEGA, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE" REPORTER: The majority of the Marine units that were going to push across the Euphrates River were gathered on the south bank of the Euphrates River, near the town of Ubati (ph). Ubati was behind them, on the south side of the river. And as they were waiting to put bridging equipment across the river there, they began taking mortar fire, some pretty exact mortar fire, as well as small arms fire from the town. The Marines had not intended to make it part of their operation, but were taking such intense fire from behind them, that they smartly turned around and went into the town itself, the fighting lasted most of the day Sunday and part of the morning on Monday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: That's what the climate of the fight is all about, Soledad. They're moving through small towns, small villages, rooting out the insurgents as they find them. The fighting continues today, and they say it may go on for several more days, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And, Barbara, all of this is the direct response to these car bombs we keep reporting?

STARR: Indeed. U.S. military officials tell us, you know, the answer to the difficult question, why now? It has been known that the foreign fighters are out in the region near Syria. So why are they moving against them now? It is partially new intelligence, but partially, Soledad, as you say, also a response to this rise in violence.

The suicide car bomb attacks another staggering statistic. During April, they estimate there were 135 car bomb attacks in Iraq, mostly in this area in Baghdad and to the west, 135 car bombs; about half were suicide car bombs. That's what they believe these foreign fighters are staging. And they tell us they've seen yet another new technique. People driving these cars laden with explosives, and they don't even know, they're not told that they're driving car bombs. So an effort to really move against the violence -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: What a terrible new wrinkle there. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us. Barbara, thanks.

CNN LIVE TODAY - Insurgent Crackdown

The U.S. military has stepped up its campaign against insurgents in western Iraq today near the border with Syria. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has late details on what they're calling Operation Matador.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn.

And, indeed, Operation Matador is now being called by the U.S. military the largest military offensive since they went against insurgents in the city of Falluja last year. Now more than 1,000 troops, backed up by fighter aircraft, moving in western Iraq. We are told today most of the fighting around the border town of Al Qaim.

This is the area that U.S. military believes insurgents have basically fled to, pushed out to the west as other areas have become more settled. They also believe foreign fighters using this area as a hideout, as a sanctuary, crossing in from Syria.

So, over the weekend, they began moving through these small towns and villages, rooting out the insurgents as they find them. Still to be determined, however, exactly how many of them are the foreign fighters. Today, they have also said they've secured a key bridge across the Euphrates to keep the insurgents from moving south.

A reporter for the "Chicago Tribune" is with the troops in the region, talking earlier this morning with CNN about how the fighting unfolded over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The majority of the Marine units that were going to push across the Euphrates River were gathered on the south bank of the Euphrates River near the town of Ubaydi. Ubaydi was behind them on the south side of the river. And as they were waiting to put bridging -- bridging equipment across the river there, they began taking mortar fire, some pretty -- some pretty exact mortar fire, as well as small arms fire from the town.

The Marines had not intended to make Ubaydi part of their operation, but they were taking such intense fire from behind them that they smartly turned around and when into the town itself. Most of the fighting lasted most of the day on Sunday and for part of the morning on Monday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: The fighting continues today, we are told, is expected to possibly go on for several more days.

Daryn, this is also reaction, of course, to the increase in violence in the attacks across Iraq for the last several days. U.S. officials now confirming during the month of April there were 135 car bomb attacks, half of them suicide car bomb attacks, the type of suicide attacks they believe are engineered by these foreign fighters -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Barbara, different story that I'd love to get the background on, an apparent intruder on the USS Truman. What do you know about that?

STARR: Details just coming to light on that story, Daryn. The USS Harry Truman, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, April 18, just a few days back, was tied up in Portsmouth, England, making a port call. It is now confirmed that an intruder was able to get on board this U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.

Let us quickly tell you, the man was determined not to be a terrorist. But this is a very serious breach of both U.S. Navy and Royal Navy security.

The man was able to get apparently on to the Royal Navy secure area at the Portsmouth docks. He then boarded essentially a small ferry boat, a liberty boat that was taking members of the Truman from Portsmouth back out to their ship.

And then he was able to get on board the carrier, Harry S. Truman. He was apparently on board for up to half an hour before the ship's security contingent discovered he was there.

Now, this, of course, is quite serious. The U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy are investigating the matter, because, of course, after the bombing of the USS Cole, the Navy ship several years ago in Yemen, that bombing, killing 17 sailors, security around U.S. Navy warships when they're in port is supposed to be fool-proof, it's supposed to be very tight. But this man apparently able to get on board -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Apparently so. Barbara Starr, thank you for both those stories this morning

STARR: Sure

NEWS FROM CNN - The Fight for Iraq

Turning now to the fight for Iraq. There's been a high-level kidnapping in Iraq's Al Anbar province. It comes as about 1,000 U.S. military troops battling insurgents in the remote region that's not far from the Syrian border.

Our Ryan Chilcote is in Baghdad. He's joining us now live with the latest -- Ryan.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it's being called Operation Matador. It's now in its third day. It's all taking place in what's called the Anbar province. That's a western Iraqi province, a Ba'athist (ph) province, I should say.

The whole idea of this operation, according to the U.S. military, is to try and stem the flow of weapons and fighters, foreign fighters among them from outside of Iraq, across the Syrian-Iraqi border, into the larger cities here in Iraq from where they had been carrying out attacks. Some of the fighting began just the day before yesterday, the town of Ubaydi, right there on the south bank of the Euphrates.

That's where the U.S. military says they took some heavy fire. That fighting subsided midday yesterday, and that is when they crossed the Euphrates after building a pontoon bridge.

Operations now taking place just north of the Euphrates in a desert area there. The U.S. military says they are having some success at drawing out some of these foreign fighters that they believe to be in this area.

They say that in the first 48 hours of the operation, they already killed some 100 insurgents. Among them, they believe, foreign fighters. They're also saying that three Marines were killed in the fighting there in Anbar. And this just in, Wolf. We have confirmed from sources in the Anbar province that the governor of that province was abducted. Reportedly, the abductors are demanding that U.S. military cease its operations there -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And what about the latest on car bombings in and around Baghdad? Where does that stand today?

CHILCOTE: Oh, it's just, Wolf, another example of why the U.S. military wants to try and stem these weapons and fighters before they get to the cities today. Another violent day.

In all, three bombings. Two of them detonated by suicide bombers. The most lethal, the first one this morning, a suicide bomber driving a car into a busy intersection.

U.S. -- or Iraqi police, rather, saying that this suicide bomber was trying to target a U.S. military patrol that was passing through it. No word of U.S. casualties, although, however, how the case usually is, there are Iraqis among the casualties.

According to the Iraqi police, they're saying that at least seven Iraqis were killed in that attack. Another 14 wounded.

And Wolf, the U.S. military is saying that these car bombs are becoming an increasingly significant and serious problem for the Iraqi government and for U.S. forces here. They're saying that just in the month of April, just last month, 130 -- 135 of these car bombs went off in Iraq -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ryan Chilcote reporting for us. Thanks, Ryan, very much.

Another disturbing story we are watching. He apparently breached security three times at London's Heathrow Airport and also managed to get on board of a U.S. aircraft carrier off of the coast of England. British prosecutors say Abdul Yasoufu (ph) was simply trying to satisfy his curiosity.

Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is joining us now live. She's got some more details.

What's going on in this story, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it may have been a man, an intruder trying to satisfy his curiosity. But it is a significant breach of security that now U.S. and British security officials are investigating to determine, no matter what motive was, how it all happened.

They are confirming there were some previous sketchy media reports. Now confirming that on April 18, as the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier was anchored off Portsmouth, England, an intruder got on board and was on board of that aircraft carrier for half an hour before he was found. Now, although the man was did determined not to be a terrorist, this is a serious matter. Because he apparently was able to breach several layers of both British and U.S. military security.

He got past Royal Navy security at the Portsmouth docks. He then got onto a small boat, essentially a liberty boat that was taking members of the Truman back out to their ship which was anchored slightly offshore, and then he was able to get on board the Truman.

Once he was discovered, the security personnel from the ship conducted an immediate search to make sure he had not placed explosives on board or caused any damage. That proved not to be the case.

He proved to be essentially an intruder, a man that was well known to British security officials. But still, how did he get on board this Navy aircraft carrier?

One of the reasons, Wolf, this is significant, of course, is everyone will remember it was about five years ago that the USS Cole was bombed in port in Yemen. Several sailors being killed in that bombing attack. And ever since then, the Navy has had very stringent security standards when its warships are in port. But apparently on April 18, those stringent Navy security standards were breached -- Wolf.

BLITZER: What do we know about Abdul Yasoufu (ph)? Where is he from? What kind of background?

If British police have known that he is an intruder trying to breach security at Heathrow on several occasions, what's going on here?

STARR: We spoke to the Hampshire Police Department in southern England earlier today. What they told us is this man has become known to them, that he is banned, of course, from these secure areas, that he's attempted to breach airport security. And that he even attempted to get back on to the Portsmouth docks apparently the next day after making an appearance in the U.K. court system.

It is now up to the U.K. court system, of course, to decide what to do with him. But that, Wolf, what officials are emphasizing, is that is a separate law enforcement matter.

This is a man who apparently attempts to breach security. That will be dealt with by law enforcement officials in Britain.

What is of very serious concern, of course, is the security breach that is now being investigated, we are told, by the Royal Navy and by the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service. How did anyone, no matter what the motivation and the reason, how did anyone get past so many layers of security and make it onto a U.S. Navy warship for apparently half an hour undetected -- Wolf.

BLITZER: That's not an easy venture, as you and I know. We have been aboard those aircraft carriers. By no means easy. Final question. Do we know what citizenship Abdul Yasoufu (ph) has? Is he British citizen or is he a foreign subject?

STARR: The only thing we have been told is that he appears to be of west African descent. It is certainly not known to me at the moment, frankly, what his actual citizenship is.

BLITZER: Barbara Starr reporting for us. Thank you, Barbara, very much.

CNN WOLF BLITZER REPORTS - Operation Matador Continues; Man Sneaks Aboard USS Harry Truman

Let's go live to our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre -- Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the Pentagon says that "Operation Matador" is a dagger aimed at the heart of the insurgency in western Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: These first fleeting glimpses from the front lines give a flavor of the remote area of western Iraq, where "Operation Matador" has been unfolding, but show nothing of the ferocity of the fighting of the past three days, as U.S. Marines engage a motivated and well-trained enemy.

BRIG. GEN. JAMES CONWAY, U.S. MARINE CORPS: There are reports that these people are in uniforms, in some cases are wearing protective vests. And there's some suspicion that their training exceeds that of what we have seen with other engagements further east.

MCINTYRE: According to journalists embedded with the U.S. Force of some 1,000 Marines the toughest battle came Monday during a night of gritty house-to-house urban warfare.

JAMES JANEGA, CHICAGO TRIBUNE REPORTER: In Ubedi (ph) it was face-to-face combat. The firing, as I said, was quite intense. They went there in armored personnel carriers with tanks. They had air support from F-18s and from Huey Cobra Gunships.

MCINTYRE: The operation kicked off Saturday when the Marines crossed the Euphrates River and set up a blocking position south of the Iraqi town of Ramada. But instead of running the enemy stood and fought. So far the U.S. says as many as 100 insurgents have been killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they are intending on being martyred, that has to be cranked into the equation with this particular enemy.

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon says since last November's Fallujah offensive the center of resistance has moved west, regrouping in the desert area near the Syrian border, where smuggling routes provide easy access to money and arms. There has even been a reported sighting within the past three weeks of Iraq's most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. But he is said not to be a target of the operation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would be a welcome event to come across him or his body and find him in that region, but that's not the purpose of the operation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: And in what appears to be a desperate move, rebels have kidnapped the governor of the region and are holding him hostage demanding an end to the U.S. offensive. The U.S. military says it doesn't deal with kidnappers, and some observers believe that the abduction is linked to a feud between the governor's tribe and one that backs Zarqawi -- Wolf.

BLITZER: This operation taking place not far from the Syrian border, as you reported, Jamie. What are they saying at the Pentagon about the involvement of the Syrian Government per se in allowing these insurgents, these foreign fighters, as they're called, to come into Iraq from Syria?

MCINTYRE: Well, they're still complaining about the fact that Syria is not doing essentially anything to stop the flow of arms, money, and as you said, fighters themselves from going in and out of Iraq across that border. I think the U.S. military realizes it's going to be its job and the Iraqi forces' to eventually seal that border. They're complaining to Syria, but other than that they're not saying too much publicly.

BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre with the latest at the Pentagon. Jamie, thanks very much.

And while they may be hard pressed right now in western Iraq, the insurgents are keeping up their attacks in the capital, that would be Baghdad. Three more bombs blew up there earlier today. The worst was a suicide strike which killed at least seven people and wounded 14 others. Police say the target may have been a U.S. military convoy.

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