U.S. Military Stages Major Operation in Iraq

Washington Post ^ | 4/11/03 | Daniel Williams

[saquin]

Lethal Attacks Against Troops Prompts Roundup of Hussein Loyalists

By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, June 11, 2003; 4:58 PM

THULUYA, Iraq, June 11 -- U.S. military forces, responding to increasingly frequent and lethal attacks by Iraqi gunmen, staged a major operation this week aimed at rounding up suspected Saddam Hussein loyalists in this Tigris River town 45 miles north of Baghdad.

The campaign, designated Operation Peninsula Strike, was described by U.S. officials as the biggest since the end of the Iraq war. Working from intelligence tips, U.S. troops tried to track down members of the Fedayeen Saddam militia, a fighting force loyal to the ousted Iraqi president, as well as high-ranking members of the Baath Party and former Iraqi security agencies, U.S. officials say.

The operation targeted inhabitants of two dozen houses and rounded up about 390 suspects, some as they fled down streets and into the river. A U.S. officer said at least three Iraqis died --one of a heart attack -- during the operation, which lasted from about midnight Monday until Tuesday morning. U.S. casualties appeared to be light -- 10 wounded, officials said.

During a meeting today with local police in this intolerably hot and volatile town, Lt. Col. David Poirier of the 720th Military Police Battalion laid out the reasoning behind the operation. "We met with you last week," he told the Iraqis. "We came in peace and only asked that no one try to hurt U.S. forces. That night and the next, people attacked us. Now, we've come in and done what we had to do and the attacks stopped. That's the way it's got to be."

[A Navy Vet]

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[facedown]

It's about time bump.

[68skylark]

"They asked me over and over about him," said Mohamed Mahdi Ali, a detainee who was freed today but whose father, Mahdi Ali Jassem, died during the American assault. Relatives said Jassem was beaten to death. U.S. troops are occupying the Jassem home, a large house on the Tigris.

When a journalist says a person or organization is accused of a crime (like murdering someone by beating them to death) isn't it customary to ask the accused to respond to the charge? Or do the normal rules of courtesy not apply to the U. S. military?

I guess those nasty thugs and killers in the U. S. military can be accused of anything by the nice peace-loving people of Thuluya and their helpers in the U. S. media.(end sarcasm)