U.S. Tries to Crush Insurgents in Iraq

AP ^ | 6/29/03 | BORZOU DARAGAHI

[Valin]

CAMP BOOM, Iraq - U.S. forces launched a massive operation early Sunday to crush insurgents and capture senior figures from the ousted regime in a show of force designed to stem a wave of deadly attacks on U.S. troops.
The operation, dubbed "Desert Sidewinder," is taking place in a huge swath of central Iraq stretching from the Iranian border to the areas north of Baghdad, and is expected to last for several days, military officials said.

Americans arrested a man in Khalis, 45 miles north of Baghdad. He is suspected of recruiting young men to launch attacks on Americans, according to military officials.
In Dojima, an upscale town where Sunni Muslim residents recently cleaned the still-standing portrait of Saddam Hussein, police raided the homes of alleged Saddam loyalists they suspected of hiding caches of arms, including rocket-propelled grenades - the weapon of choice in many recent ambushes.

[ewing]

Not a moment too soon, especially with the rumoured Islamist uprisings with the Baath party remnants scheduled for next month..

[Elkiejg]

Shoot first, ask questions later.

[Semper Paratus]

This operation will work if we are getting help from inside the Iraqi population.

[jhw61]

"Yeah, Baby"......."Lock-n-Load"!!!!!!

[laconic]

Burn the public portrait of Saddam Hussein and hang the local who encouraged these attacks on our soldiers (encouraged attacks by others, of course, the nature of cowardice).

[b4its2late]

Show them a little of what the wild, wild west was like.....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for posting the full article!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Burn the public portrait of Saddam Hussein and hang the local who encouraged these attacks on our soldiers ...

Burn them both.

[blam]

Didn't see your post

US Strikes At Iraqi Resistance

[dixiechick2000]

Good! Glad to see us on the offensive.

Thanks for the post and ping!

[need_a_screen_name]

There are so many excerpts instead of the full articles posted these days, that I thought Free Republic had changed its policy! Yes, down with excerpting!!! )

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

Has anyone brought up the idea that Saddam Hussein himself may be directing these recent attacks against the US and British troops? Perhaps he's in power again, albeit not in Baghdad. Perhaps he's directing a small group of loyalists.

[SoulStorms]

Some of the soldiers' personal items were found during a house-to-house search in the area on Friday, and 12 Iraqis have been taken into custody, the U.S. military said from Baghdad.

I'd like to see a lot more bugs, tracking devices, etc. used to follow around suspected insurgents. (Every arrestee should return home with a few "goodies".) Maybe it's just the shading of the media stories, but it seems as though we are too often being caught by surprise.

We are on the ground, and it seems our intelligence should be much more intrusive and much less dependent on voluntary "snitches".

[wideminded]

The American death toll was still far below the 382 U.S. troops killed in the 1991 Gulf War

This figure is wrong. Only 133 U.S. troops were killed in the 1991 Gulf War (79 in combat).

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Glad for the offensive, but I'd prefer these things to remain unannounced. According to guerrila 101, you've just told your opposition to fade back into the country-side, become invisible from the rest of the population again. If they do that they'll be harder to root out.

We've gotten too enamored of telegraphing our punches.

[Jim Noble]

I think we may have to invade Iraq...