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US and Iraqi ground forces edged cautiously towards an Al-Qaeda stronghold just south of Baghdad on Monday after the area was heavily bombed overnight, an AFP photographer said. Troops of the US 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment were using Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to inch forward and clearing roadside bombs with remote-controlled robots, said the photographer, who was moving with the unit.MRAPs are armoured fighting vehicles designed to survive roadside bomb attacks and ambushes.Apache helicopter gunships were hovering over the area where the bombs had destroyed buildings and caused craters in the roads.The US military said American warplanes...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces uncovered a terrorist execution site and a building suspected of being a car bomb factory during an operation Aug. 21-23 south of Baghdad. As Coalition Forces entered the Arab Jabour area, they immediately received small arms fire. The assault force returned fire, killing one terrorist. During the 24-hour operation, Coalition Forces discovered an area used by terrorists as an execution and dumping site. The ground forces found human skulls, decomposing bodies and bones wrapped in bloody clothes. Wild dogs were rampant around the area, which was characterized by a crater where most of the human...

BAGHDAD — Coalition forces detained a foreign fighter during an intelligence-driven operation in northern Arab Jabour Aug. 22. Intelligence indicates the targeted individual is a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device cell leader targeting coalition forces operating in the Arab Jabour area. He was born in Egypt but came to Iraq in the early 1980s and later joined al-Qaeda fighters. He has Iraqi citizenship and believed to be a former high ranking official of the Ba’ath party during Saddam Hussein’s reign. There were three other individuals detained during the operation.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military on Saturday said coalition forces south of Baghdad found a site where people were executed and bodies dumped. The discovery was made during an operation Tuesday through Thursday in the Arab Jabour area, a region where al Qaeda in Iraq has a presence. "The ground forces found human skulls, decomposing bodies and bones wrapped in bloody clothes," the military said in a statement. "Wild dogs were rampant around the area, which was characterized by a crater where most of the human remains were dumped. Inside a nearby building, the ground forces found blood...

Excerpt - FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, Aug 16 (Reuters) - U.S. forces launched an airborne assault on a desert compound south of Baghdad on Thursday, the first air strike in a major new offensive. A company of airborne infantry struck villas in search of Sunni Arab militants. The assault was a first part of operation Marne Husky, itself part of a countrywide push announced this week against both Sunni Arab and Shi'ite militants. Major-General Rick Lynch, commander of U.S. forces south of Baghdad, told Reuters on Wednesday that about 4,000 of his men would be involved in the operation...