Operation Phantom Fury: The Battle of Iraq

The Forth Rail ^ | June 21, 2007 | Bill Roggio

[hsalaw]

This operation follows Operation Phantom Support, which was organized by the Democratic party.

"Phantom Support" and "Phantom Leadership" describe exactly the Democrat Party's approach to our military.

[SandRat]

FR WAR NEWS!

WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!

All the News the MSM refuses to use!

Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!

[pray4liberty]

Please Lord, protect our brave, fighting men and women, and give them the Victory in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You are WRONG!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

He has changed the title to:

Operation Phantom Thunder: The Battle of Iraq

[MEG33]

My prayers are with them..Go Get Em!

[Marine_Uncle]

"Why am I always outside when those things come in close? ;-)"
Because the good Lord is showing you, HE has your six dear. You hang in there. (easy for me to say).
It is almost sureal to think these major operations may continue for many months without a stop. Actually as you three would most probably agree, we cannot afford to stop. Continuing HUMIT and other Intel sources hopefully will fuel the effeciency of this surge to the point, literally thousands of goons will be laying in the ground, or what is left of them.
I for one am convinced, only recently has this type surge had the chance of success. Once the major Sunni tribes in al Anbar switched sides on an official bases, leading to further considerations of other groups such as we are now seeing in some of the provinces, we can now carry out large sustained operations that can eradicate insurgents that used to hide in safety.
People used to scream about why our troops where not killing off tens of thousands of insurgents. One has to know where to find them in order to kill them off. Now the time has arisen where this is possible. Al Qaeda and many of their support groups are now doomed.
But I still worry about those large numbers of Saddam Fedayeen and others close to the Saddam military that will still be left to contend with.
Many of them did not fit into the de-Baatification process, simply because they still are sworn to Saddam to make war with any government other then Saddams, as well as the occupiers.
So let us be carefull not to assume that once AQIR's back is literally broken and non-effective that things will just quiet down. The insurgency is made up of to many different elements. And lest we forget the large Sadr and Badr militias and the many smaller ones still are 100% active.
If Maliki does not come through on his promise to disband all of them, then things still could get very sticky.
I can see for the time being to lay off them over all other then go after elements of them that INTEL shows must be dealt with. Some of them obviously will end up tangling with the Multinational Forces when found to be directly opposing the new government/military and our military. That is a given. But tens of thousand of them will still be intact in the future, not directly proving to be a direct threat but always being close to the line.
Anyway. May the real true God watch over our troops as they take the fight to the enemy, and spare as many of them as it would please HIM to do so.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Speaking of Saddam....Flopping Aces has more on the Series:

Did Saddam's WMD Go To Syria? Part IV

[Doctor Don]

May God protect our soldiers!

[Marine_Uncle]

Will read.

[Marine_Uncle]

Do make the distinction between the fat boy and the many Sunni Tribal groups that have switched sides, not just for the short term but for the long haul. They have indicated they are fully prepared to participate in future democratic processes as well as the future financial/commercial construction to take place throughout all al Anbar. Other tribes now in other provinces are making the same commitment.
Also. Starting with Operation Matador which took place in 2005 in al Anbar, once areas where cleared, the US forces would leave. New al Qaeda would move into the area and brutally mistreat the people. They finally had enough.
As the Iraqi military and police forces have been trained up and supplied they started to occupy areas in al Anbar.
Then early this year it was decided by the tribes to join the new Iraqi order.
I can appreciate your negativism. But perhaps some of it is based on not being fully informed on the progression of events that have lead up to this current scenario.
In al Anbar for instance, a lot of money will flow in, and it is known they may be sitting on a lot of oil.
They have decided it is time to stop being camel humpers and create a future for their kids, where they can live in peace, and this time around not have a tyrant (Saddam) always be on their heels.
Times are changing in the landscape of Iraq.

[Marine_Uncle]

Hate to sound like I told you so. But I had harped in this manner in some cases verbatim for three years at this site.
And Floppy simply touches on some of the items of interest. Notice they do not even mention the known German designed special induction furnaces used in the yellow cake refinery process, leading up to the final milling stages. And does not mention the some 300 tons of yellow cake that was found at Salmon Pak or the estimated 1.7 tons of highly enriched uranium found at same site.
Saddam had many cleverly disguised programs, some just waiting for the sanctions to be lifted others so cleverly integrated within industrial processes, it is simply difficult to distinguish which where potent or not.
And heaven knows how much stuff they could simply have dumped into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in a short time.
Often a scenario simply over looked.

[april15Bendovr]

Lt. Gen. Odierno Discusses Arrowhead Ripper with an insurgent from CNN John Roberts

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4454523083026135503&q=Lt.+Gen.+Odierno+Discusses+Arrowhead+Ripper&total=1&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks E. So, it turns out that our most effective allies in the Iraq liberation were none other than the Iraqis themselves. :’)

[TexKat]

U.S. reports 68 al Qaeda militants killed in Iraq

POSTED: 1620 GMT (0020 HKT), June 22, 2007

Story Highlights
• NEW: U.S. general says Iran “surging” support for militants in Iraq since March

• U.S. attack helicopters kill 17 al Qaeda members on Friday, military says

• 51 other militants killed in Diyala province this week brings total to 68, U.S. says

• Seven police and civilians die in Baghdad violence Thursday night

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/06/22/iraq.main/

[TexKat]

U.S. airstrikes in Iraq kill 17 fighters

By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer

BAQOUBA, Iraq - American attack helicopters fired on al-Qaida militants trying to slip past an Iraqi checkpoint on Friday, killing 17 of them in the fourth day of an offensive to oust the fighters entrenched in this city an hour’s drive north of Baghdad.

More than three-quarters of the city’s al-Qaida leadership fled before the Americans moved in to Baqouba this week, U.S. officials said Friday, but not before drone planes spotted fighters planting dozens of roadside bombs on the main highway into the city, capital of volatile and extremely dangerous Diyala province.

Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, assistant commander for operations with the 25th Infantry Division, estimated that several hundred low-level al-Qaida fighters remain.

“They’re clearly in hiding, no question about it. But they’re a hardline group of fighters who have no intention of leaving, and they want to kill as many coalition and Iraqi security forces as they possibly can,” Bednarek told The Associated Press and another news agency on Friday.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top day-to-day commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said the U.S. may be able to reduce combat forces in Iraq by next spring, if Iraq’s own security forces continue to grow and improve.

Odierno did not predict any U.S. reductions but said it may be feasible by spring. There are currently 156,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

“I think if everything goes the way it’s going now, there’s a potential that by the spring we will be able to reduce forces, and Iraq security forces could take over,” Odierno said. “It could happen sooner than that. I don’t know.”

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon from his headquarters outside Baghdad, Odierno gave an update on the series of U.S. offensives that are under way in Diyala and in areas south and west of the capital. He said U.S. and Iraqi troops have made important progress.

On Thursday, operation battalion commanders met at a bombed-out hospital here to plot their next moves.

Soldiers spread maps across rubble and pulled up charred concrete blocks as stools inside the crumbling building. Controlled explosions of roadside bombs boomed in the distance. Soldiers laden down by body armor mopped sweat from their faces.

“It’s 24-7 for us here, and it’s probably the same for our adversary as well,” Bednarek said. “It’s house-to-house, block to block, street to street, sewer to sewer — and it’s also cars, vans — we’re searching every one of them.”

The al-Qaida leaders abandoned a field hospital, complete with oxygen tanks, heart defibrillators and other sophisticated medical equipment, said Col. Steve Townsend, commander of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. They also left behind at least seven homes booby-trapped with trip wires, said Townsend, 47, from Griffin, Ga.

U.S. attack helicopters firing missiles killed the 17 al-Qaida fighters Friday as the militants tried to bypass Iraqi police and infiltrate a Shiite enclave northwest of Baqouba, the military said in a statement.

More than three-quarters of the senior al-Qaida leaders holed up escaped as the offensive began Monday, Odierno said Thursday during a one-day trip to the battlefield.

“We believe 80 percent of the upper level (al-Qaida) leaders fled, but we’ll find them,” Odierno said after meeting with battalion commanders in the bombed-out hospital. “Eighty percent of the lower level leaders are still here.”

Days before the offensive, unmanned U.S. drones recorded video of insurgents digging trenches with back-hoes, said Maj. Robbie Parke, spokesman for the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division that is doing most of the fighting in western Baqouba.

About 30 roadside bombs — known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs — were planted on Route Coyote, the U.S. code name for a main Baqouba thoroughfare, said Parke, 36, from Rapid City, S.D. “So they knew we were coming.”

Odierno, who was in charge of Baqouba as head of the 4th Infantry Division in 2003 and 2004, said he was shocked at how entrenched al-Qaida had become.

“This is not the Baqouba I knew, and we can’t let this happen again,” he said. Militant activity spiked in Baqouba in the summer of 2006, Odierno said. A U.S. airstrike killed al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi near Baqouba in June 2006, but by then the city was already a major base for his terror network.

Since last fall, the U.S. has kept a single brigade — 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division — in charge of all of Diyala province. It was enough to conduct sporadic attacks on al-Qaida, but not enough to hold the entire province, Odierno said.

He encouraged battalion commanders to come up with a plan to prevent al-Qaida’s return, after the major fighting is over. “It’s down the road, but it’s what you should be thinking about right now,” warning “the heavy fighting still might be ahead of you.”

By the time American units moved in to block the militants’ escape, many were already gone, Odierno said.

“It’s like jelly in a sandwich — it squirts when you squeeze it,” Parke said. “We’re fooling ourselves if we think we can hold them in.”

Separately, the U.S. military reported another American soldier killed, raising to at least 16 the U.S. death toll over the past three days.

In Fallujah, a suicide attacker wearing an explosives vest struck a police patrol, killing two officers.

___

AP writer Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070622/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[TexKat]

US and Iraqi forces check a map in Baqouba, Iraq, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Thursday, June 21, 2007. The US military began a major campaign against Sunni insurgents Monday in the area surrounding Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province. (AP Photo/Talal Mohammed)

[TexKat]

Gen Bednarek said his troops had received logistical support from local Sunnis armed groups who were anti-US but who wanted to end al-Qaeda domination of their communities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6230234.stm

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Making progress....God Bless our Soldiers....

[Marine_Uncle]

What IMHO is more significant is the large numbers of Iraqi troops that will participate in this by all indications, long term surge, e.g. many months.
Once areas are literally purged of all insurgents, then we can move on, and let the Iraqi military and police units make sure no one moves back. This is one thing that finally convinced the al Anbar Sunni tribes to switch sides, and of course in some cases actually join up to fight side by side with the Iraqi and US troops.
A similiar thing may happen with some of these northern tribal groups. In fact I believe that is already happening. The BBC makes it sound like an inclusive agreement, where none of the Sunni tribes in Diyala for instance are changing sides, but only fighting long enough to rid themselves of al Qaeda. I do not believe that will be the case over a period of time. Then again. I taint got a crystal ball.