Insurgents seize 5 towns near Syria

[ECH1969]

Camp al Qaim, Iraq -- A senior U.S. Marine commander said Monday that insurgents loyal to militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had taken over at least five key western Iraqi towns on the border with Syria and were forcing local residents to flee.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Lt. Col. Julian Alford, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment stationed outside the western Iraqi town of al Qaim, said insurgents in the area had been distributing flyers they called "death letters," in which they ordered residents of this western corner of volatile Anbar province to leave -- or face death.

"Basically, the insurgents say if they don't leave they will ... behead them," said Alford, who took command this month of about 1,000 Marines stationed in the dusty desert area populated by roughly 100,000 Sunni Arabs.

"It appears that al Qaeda in Iraq is kicking out local people from a lot of these towns out there," he said. Alford said he did not know why the insurgents were forcing townspeople to leave, but he estimated that as many as 100 families per day were passing through a Marine checkpoint just east of the troubled area, their cars packed with their belongings as they flee east alongside the Euphrates River on the ancient Silk Road.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/27/MNG99EUI391.DTL

[Poll_Blind]

1. So let me get this straight....

Al Qaeda decides to concentrate themselves in an area, broadcasting the fact as much as humanly possible?

Hrm, I think it's more we're going to bomb the shit out of those places and need some deniability when John and Jane Q. Public see a small shrouds being buried.

"Look at that poor devil, must've been cut in half!" says John.

"Honey, it's a child." says Jane.

PB

[ClintonTyree]

2. Freedom is on the march.........

:eyes: This is just wonderful, things are going so well over there, but the "good" things just don't get reported I guess. At least that's what they said at the freeper rally Sunday. Things are MUCH better than the "liberal" media reports. :sarcasm: Yeah, right. Civil war is in full swing, way to go, georgie.

[ElectroPrincess]

3. Now, I don't consider this *making progress*

If Snotty Scotty says that we're *making progress* in Iraq, I hope the Press Corps verbally tears into him like there's no tomorrow. :puke:

[motherearthdying]

20. Who is "Snotty Scotty"?

Sorry, new here.

[jjanpundt]

27. Scott McClellan (sp?)

White House spokesman

[motherearthdying]

28. Ah, okay. What's up with his hair?

Something about it doesn't look quite right. When he's lying for Shrub he comes across as the boy who never got invited to parties.

[radwriter0555]

4. So the US troops need a reason to occupy the border of Syria, do they?

So they're making sure the civilians "leave"....

Now... why would Al Queda say the towns are "KEY"? What are they KEY to?

It seems that they'd be KEY to the US interests... what would iraqis want with Syria?

[ECH1969]

5. When they say 'key' they mean

the towns are key to controlling the smuggling roots from Syria, if the US controls them it is harder for them to bring in more people and supplies, also we are seeing a good example of what happens in a war when there is not enough troops for the mission.

[radwriter0555]

7. Is that right? So Syria is now sending troops to fight the US? And food

and supplies?

I find that hard to believe... considering that the World Net Daily News was the spawner of the "saddam sent wmds to syria" story.

Tell me, what would Syria have to gain by sending fighters to Iraq when they know bush plans to invade them?

[ECH1969]

9. When did I ever say Syria had anything to do with it

These smuggling routes have been used for litterly hundreds of years.

Assads government is weak, especailly after the loss of Lebanon to the point were he couldn't crack down on it much if he wanted to. There are anti Assad fundimentalist tribes in Syria that facilitate the foreigners coming into Syria and then going into Iraq that Assad has nothing to do with.

[Toots]

18. What have they been smuggling for hundreds of years?

Maybe you could back up some of your claims with a link or some other validation.

[blackhorse]

31. Historically,

the peoples in the region have most certainly moved along trade routes buying and selling goods.

'Smuggling' seems a silly word considering the arbitrary borders of this area that were laid down without regard to tribal boundaries after the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the First World War. I have no doubt that most of the tribes there cared not about the lines drawn on maps by distant European diplomats. Thus, to contend they are 'ancient' smuggling communities is likely an oxymoron.

Cheers

BH

[radwriter0555]

26. What foreigners would be doing that?

Seriously?

[acmavm]

30. No no no no no. What you're seeing is the natural reaction to a country

going in and bombing a country back to the stoneage without justification in a part of the globe that we have no business being in. And the anger of the people in that part of the world over the tens and tens of thousands of innocent men, women, children, old people who have been slaughtered during this bloodily disgusting criminal action.

[0007]

10. This sounds like a page out of Hitlers play book that fired up

the German people just before the invasion of Poland in 1938.

[pinniped]

6. Is there any local in Iraq that doesn't share a border with Syria?

Is this like when Seinfeld said he used to live on the Scottish border with Ireland?

[Massachusetts]

8. Way ta go Georgie!

[skooooo]

11. Bring it on!

[Bonhomme Richard]

12. That's crazy and makes no military sense whatsoever.

Why the hell would a insurgent force concentrate it members in that way? Sounds like Psych Ops again.

[Akoto]

19. Agreed.

It makes no sense for an insurgent force to pretty much tell us where they are hiding their men. Of course, the right-wingers will latch onto this without thinking about it.

[Dhalgren]

13. When something like this comes out - that makes absolutely no

sense what-so-ever - it's time to watch closely as the US flattens towns and kills-off populations. How often does any out-gunned insurgency, with no air cover and no artillery to speak of give notice to the occupiers of where they will be and when? This is going to be a very ugly episode, that will only worsen our image in the world - oh, yeah, and kill many, many innocent Iraqis, as well...

[Thor_MN]

14. Syria, Cambodia, whatever it takes.

Why the hell won't Georgie read a book? Do we need to send him to the Sylvan Learning Center?

[RaulGroom]

15. Transparent... but not transparent enough for moron media

Gee, I wonder if this could have anything to do with this Wired.com story, which I found after about 10 seconds of googling.

But no, it would be unethical for a reporter to critically evaluate pronouncements from the infallible military.

Some key passages:

"Towns close to the Euphrates river valley, including Qaim and Haditha, are towns that we focus on. And as soon as we see him trying to establish a safe haven there, we will conduct operations just like we did in Tal Afar," he added.

His remarks followed a recent statement by Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi that government forces were ready to hit insurgents in four other northwestern towns after the strike against the rebel stronghold of Tal Afar in northern Iraq.

Dulaimi singled out the towns of Ramadi, Samarra, Rawa and Qaim as targets for future attacks against insurgents, but gave no indication of when the attacks might take place.

Zarqawi declared war on Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq on Wednesday in response to the Iraqi-U.S. offensive in Tal Afar.

Baghdad and Washington have long said arms and insurgents are moving into Iraq from Syria, especially along the Euphrates, and spreading out from there to cities across Iraq.

Syria denies it but Iraq closed parts of the border on Sunday.

[PunkPop]

16. Total bullshit

I don't know what we're up to but it's probably no good.

I want to see one of these "death letters".

I want to hear from some of these fleeing Sunni Arab families.

I don't trust the US military one fucking bit.

You're telling me that "300 to 400" insurgents have taken over these "ancient smuggling communities"? Wouldn't ancient smuggling communities probably be full of not-so-friendly people who would most likely be armed and able to defend themselves.

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

[Igel]

17. There was a similar thread a few weeks ago.

But it wasn't on as large as scale.

It was cast in two ways: as a conflict between two tribes of long-standing rivalry, one of which was insurgent-allied and the other of which was pro-government with a fair number of members in the Iraqi army.

[motherearthdying]

21. Mission Accomplished! Right?

[underpants]

22. WOLVERINES!!!!

oh sorry those were "insurgents" of a different type. -watched "Red Dawn" again this weekend...scary stuff.

[catmandu57]

23. Dammit I'm confused, didn't I read this headline in August?

It seems to me we already tried to nail jello to this wall, American aircraft bombed the hell out of some villages, and marines went in to kill Iraqis.
Seems to me though, that because we telegraphed our intentions the Iraqis slipped away. Have they came back now? Are we about to do step two?
This is so fucked up.

[The_Casual_Observer]

33. You are not confused. What you are saying is true.

[cantstandbush]

36. It's another of those "military press releases" to give cover to US

when they kill the women and children living in these towns.

[bemildred]

24. "wanted to make the area safe enough to set up polling stations"

That's what this is about, leaving these places out of the
charter referendum.

[Roland99]

25. Are they insurgents or are they "Al Qaeda in Iraq"?

That Zarqawi fella sure gets around!

[The_Casual_Observer]

34. Not bad for a guy who only has one leg

or was it one arm, or was it one eye and 3 fingers and a dialysis machine?

[Roland99]

35. Plus he's been killed twice and has an injured lung

[donkeyotay]

29. Now we've got to remember 2 questions: "Who benefits?" and

"Does this make any sense?" The first question seems to have a very consistent answer while the second one is getting harder because it seems like nothing makes any sense anymore.

"Basically, the insurgents say if they don't leave they will ... behead them,"

And we're saying they should definitely leave because we're going to bomb their towns to rubble.

[bemildred]

32. Iraqi commandos to launch anti-terror operation in Qa'em

BAGHDAD, Sept 27 (KUNA) -- Iraqi Chief of Interior Ministry Commandos, Major General Rashid Flaih said on Tuesday that the force will execute an anti-terror sweeping campaign in Qa'em, nearby the Iraqi-Syrian borders, similar to that executed in Tal Afar.

Flaih told reporters that the forces will cordon the town to cut terrorists' supplies in Qa'em and surrounding areas, noting that the Iraqi Commando force will execute the operation instead of the US forces starting on Tuesday.

The Multi-National Force (MNF) announced on Monday that the coalition forces launched accurate air raids on terrorist hideouts in the town of Awash in western Iraq, killing a leader of Al-Qaeda in Karablah, nearby Qa'em.

http://www.kuna.net.kw/Home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=773733

[daleo]

37. This seems unlikely

Why would the resistance want to expel civilians? It would just make them an easy target for U.S. air strikes. This doesn't pass the common sense test.