Posted on 06/12/2005 4:57:43 PM PDT by blam
American air strike kills 40 Sunni rebels in Iraqi border stronghold
By Adrian Blomfield in Baghdad
(Filed: 13/06/2005)
American forces launched a rare series of air strikes against rebel Iraqi positions close to Syria during a bloody weekend in which more than 80 people were killed.
Marine aircraft fired seven missiles as units on the ground fought insurgents controlling a road leading to the frontier city of Qaim.
A military spokesman said 40 insurgents had been killed but reported no American casualties.
"The deaths of another 25 people were reported elsewhere in the country over the weekend," he said.
British forces in the south also claimed a breakthrough, saying they had arrested up to five suspected insurgents believed to be responsible for attacks and the deaths of two soldiers in Maysan province. Since last November, when US forces regained control of Fallujah, air strikes have become increasingly infrequent.
However, Qaim has proved an exception. A US military officer said the remote desert city was largely under insurgent control.
"Last year there were a number of major cities in Anbar province which were effectively held by the insurgents," he said.
"We've pushed them out of virtually all those places but they still have control of a few areas like Qaim and Haditha."
In the past three months, US forces have mounted offensives against both places, but on a more limited scale than the major operations last year.
A US military official said more intensive operations were being planned later in the summer in the province, which is overwhelmingly Sunni.
Suicide bombers again penetrated a cordon thrown around the capital by Iraqi forces two weeks ago as part of a major crackdown.
At least 16 people were killed in the capital, 10 of them in a suicide attack on a sandwich shop.
Restaurants have become a favoured target for the bombers.
On Saturday, four US soldiers were killed in two separate roadside bomb blasts west of Baghdad. Up to 50 corpses were also discovered, 21 of them belonging to soldiers kidnapped and then executed near Qaim.
Al-Qa'eda's wing in Iraq claimed responsibility. The other bodies were dumped outside a firing range in Baghdad.
Despite the violence, which has killed nearly 1,000 people since a new government was sworn in six weeks ago, cabinet ministers insisted that the clampdown in Baghdad, known as Operation Lightning, was succeeding. The number of car bombs in the city has dropped from 12 to two a day, officials said.
The veteran guerrilla leader Massoud Barzani was yesterday elected as the first president of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region. The Kurdish parliament in Arbil, 220 miles north of Baghdad, unanimously chose Barzani, the son of the father of Kurdish nationalism Mullah Mustafa Barzani, for a four-year presidential term.
Appropriate screen name for this post!
Rebels? Did the story refer to these TERRORISTS as rebels? Like Chechen rebels? This reporter truly doesn't understand what this war is about.
Some paper editors don't allow the proper use of the term "terrorists" when refering to terrorists. Either way, the democrats are going to be pissed about this. During the Iraqi elections, all we heard about was the Sunni terrorists weren't being represented fairly. The Sunnis (Saddams Baathist loyalists) are the darlings of the left in this country. Watch for Matt and Katie Koran shedding tears in the a.m., along with Matthews and Olberman in the evening.
"The veteran guerrilla leader Massoud Barzani was yesterday elected as the first president of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region. The Kurdish parliament in Arbil, 220 miles north of Baghdad, unanimously chose Barzani, the son of the father of Kurdish nationalism Mullah Mustafa Barzani, for a four-year presidential term."
This is probably the most important thing in the entire article.
"And that is the way we should wage war in Iraq, from the air. We should not get down in the sand and wrestle with the muzlims. Military 101 says, "Never fight on your enemy's turf and terms.""
What Military 101 are you reading from, you can't hold land from the air.
Expecting that in the coming days.
I hope these air strikes become common place.
We've been under utilizing this asset for too long!
American Airlines has bombers?
You have a deficient comprehension of facts. I know some veterans of the landings on Tarawa, Rota, Tinian, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, not to mention all the other real estate that the Japanese occupied in the South Pacific, who'd be happy to show you their scars and then tell you you're full of s***.
You are a moron.
SEMPER FI, boys! Carry on!
Occupied territory is just that. Occupied. Is Iraq legally U.S. soil? Spend some time with that Illustrated Dictionary for Young People Aunt Minnie got you last year for Christmas.
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