Posted on 05/14/2005 12:54:19 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
U.S. Calls Iraq Border Operation a Success
By MOHAMMED BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer
OBEIDI, Iraq - The U.S. military pronounced its weeklong offensive near the Syrian border over Saturday, saying it had successfully "neutralized" an insurgent sanctuary and killed more than 125 militants.
During the weeklong operation, many more suspected insurgents were injured and 39 with "intelligence value" were captured, the military said in a statement. It provided no details about the detainees.
Nine U.S. Marines were killed and 40 injured during the campaign known as Operation Matador, during which American forces searched the Euphrates River villages of Karabilah, Rommana and Obeidi for followers of Iraq's most-wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The pronouncement came hours after U.S. forces had encircled the Euphrates River village of Obeidi, causing frightened residents to flee indoors as American helicopters hovered overhead and military vehicles briefly rumbled through Obeidi's old quarter, meeting no resistance.
Insurgents, meanwhile, staged a series of attacks elsewhere in Iraq, killing at least 10 people, including a top Iraqi Foreign Ministry official who was assassinated in a drive-by shooting as he stood outside his Baghdad home.
U.S. air strikes also destroyed two unoccupied buildings near Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, on Saturday that the military identified as an insurgent command center.
Marines based in the area said the targeted buildings were about 20 miles northwest of Fallujah, the scene of a large scale November campaign west of Baghdad to rout militants responsible for multiple attacks. No casualties were immediately reported.
More than 1,000 Marines, soldiers and sailors participated in Operation Matador, which began late Saturday in Qaim, a border town of 50,000 people about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Marines met resistance soon after from heavily armed insurgents — some in body armor — in the nearby village of Obeidi, home to 10,000 people, the statement said. Some 70 insurgents were killed in the first 24 hours alone, the military said.
Thousands have fled the area, pitching tents along sandblown desert highways or seeking shelter in schools and mosques in nearby towns.
The remote desert region, an ancient smuggling route and insurgent hideout, had been used as a staging area where fighters who slipped over the border from Syria received weapons and equipment for deadly attacks in Iraq's major cities, according to the military statement.
"During the seven-day operation, Marines disrupted the known infiltration routes through the region and disrupted sanctuaries and staging areas," the military said. It said U.S. and Iraqi forces would return in the future.
Marines searching small towns near the Syrian border discovered numerous weapons caches containing machine guns, mortar rounds and rockets. Six car bombs and material for making other explosive devices also were found, the statement said.
The military said the operation confirmed previous intelligence about the region north of the Euphrates River, including the existence of "cave complexes" in the nearby escarpment. It did not elaborate.
The military denied resident reports they had been without water and electricity in some areas since the offensive began.
"Throughout the course of the operation, Marines strove to ensure the well-being of the local Iraqi citizens," the statement said. "The Marines were greeted with greater hospitality from local villagers than is normally encountered."
In Obeidi, scene of some of the fiercest fighting in the campaign's first days, residents retreated indoors as a large convoy of mainly Marines, backed by tanks and helicopters, rolled across the river from Rommana.
Shelling began several hours later, damaging a house in the old part of the village and wounding five people, said Dr. Saadallah Anad at Obeidi General Hospital.
Anad said he did not know if U.S. weapons fire hit the house but helicopters were hovering over the area.
"We are living in a catastrophic situation. We don't have medicines or equipment, and we are worried that when our ambulances go out the Americans could strike at them," he said.
Marines launched a "cordon and search" operation in Obeidi, looking for insurgents, foreign fighters, weapons and bomb-making material, U.S. military spokesman Capt. Jeffrey Pool said. But he denied Obeidi was hit by air or artillery strikes Saturday.
Rival insurgent groups are fighting among themselves in the nearby town of Qaim, trading mortar, rocket and machine gun fire almost nightly, Pool said. Residents acknowledged fighting in Qaim began before the U.S. offensive, characterizing it as tribal clashes.
While armed fighters control Qaim's streets, Obeidi residents said they have seen no more gunmen in their village, where the U.S. military says it killed more than 50 insurgents the first night of the campaign, the largest since insurgents were forced from Fallujah six months ago.
The operation was aimed at allies of al-Zarqawi, whose terror network has claimed responsibility for scores of bombings, ambushes and kidnappings in Iraq.
Also Saturday, Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. forces captured 52 men suspected of insurgent activities in a raid in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Haider al-Tamimi told Associated Press Television News.
Iraqi soldiers also raided the Sunni Muslim Sheik Nasar Mosque after midday prayers in central Baghdad, arresting eight members of a suspected militant cell, including their leader, known as Abu Huthaifa, said police Lt. Col. Foad Asaad.
Weapons and ammunition were confiscated during the arrests of the eight men, who police said were wanted in connection with multiple attacks and assassinations.
The push around Obeidi came a day after Marine warplanes launched air strikes that killed 12 insurgents manning a checkpoint east of Husaybah and targeted a suspected terrorist safe house in Karabilah, also near Obeidi and the Syrian border.
The four Marines were killed Wednesday when a bomb struck their troop transporter near Karabilah, a Marine statement said. The U.S. military announced previously that two other Marines had died and 14 were wounded in the same attack.
At least 1,620 U.S. military members have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The offensive came amid a surge of militant attacks that have killed at least 440 people across Iraq since Iraq's first democratically elected government was announced April 28.
Jassim Mohammed Ghani, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry's director-general, was killed at about Saturday evening in western Baghdad's al-Kharijiyah district, Capt. Talib Thamer said. Three bystanders were also wounded.
Insurgents have routinely targeted Iraqi government officials in a relentless campaign to derail the country's postwar reconstruction efforts.
A car bomb also targeted a police patrol in central Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least five Iraqis and injuring 12, most civilians, police said. The afternoon blast destroyed cars and set fire to a minibus. Shards of glass and pieces of flesh were strewn in the bloodstained street.
Earlier Saturday, a roadside bomb exploded — apparently prematurely — in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, killing three Iraqi street cleaners and injuring four, police and hospital officials said.
In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded when a joint army and police patrol passed by, killing a 10-year-old boy and wounding two Iraqi soldiers and a policeman, police Col. Wathiq Mohammed said. A car bomb in the same city injured three policemen, he said.
In a related story, Bush is announcing the Mexico Border Operation was also a success. There were 3.5 Million Mexicans who made it across the border into the US last year without incident - a total success.
Must you attempt to hijack this thread? There are 20 or 30 active threads about immigration. You don't need to hijack threads in or to post lies.
Ping
And may God Bless and comfort the families of those brave Marines who were killed and wounded in this action.
Related thread:
"Send him our thanks ,....prayers for him and his fellow soldiers."
Ernest, suspect you are refereing to my nephew LCpl Steve with 2nd LAR, previous with 2/2 (Dragon Fly)...per other thread.
Thanks. Steve gets the thanks from all Freepers as I assure him there are many supporting what they are doing.
Yeah but it was funny so it's okay this time. :-)
ha ha.........it just occured to me I posted the article I just thanked you for referencing................Ahhhhh the wonders of it all.
Hang tight buddy!
My Grandson is heading over later this summer....about 19...and feeling his oats....
ROFL!
The internet can get one dizzy!
I love it when they do this stuff.
"My Grandson is heading over later this summer....about 19...and feeling his oats...."
Yet one more honor bound young man I must continue to hold up in prayer. Sometimes my old eyes glisten a bit as I write some of my replies to posts.
"The internet can get one dizzy!", That is for sure. It gets tough when one tries to keep up with dozens of folks replies on a number of threads at one time. It will keep your mind,fingers, and eyes sharp..............or bleary.
Prayers for our dead and wounded. No words are strong enough to express my deep admiration and thanks to the American fighting forces for bring the war to the Middle East and far from my home and family. God bless them all.
5.56mm
"See this: "
Roger. Assad will now show his real colors. Is he on our side or the insurgency. See my statements at this new post.
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