U.S. says 10,000 troops in major Iraq offensive

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.S. says 10,000 troops in major Iraq offensive
Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:32AM EDT

By Dean Yates

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it had launched a
major offensive against al Qaeda north of Baghdad on Tuesday
involving 10,000 soldiers, in one of the single biggest operations
against the Sunni Islamist militant group in Iraq.

The military said in a statement that 22 militants had been
killed in the early hours of the offensive, called Operation
Arrowhead Ripper. The operation was taking place around the
city of Baquba in Diyala province, an al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold.

Attack helicopters and ground forces had launched the offensive
in an attempt to "eliminate" al Qaeda in Iraq militants operating
in Baquba and its surrounding areas, the statement said.

"The end state is to destroy the al Qaeda influences in this
province and eliminate their threat against the people," said
Brigadier-General Mick Bednarek, deputy commanding general,
operations, 25th Infantry Division.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSCOL02152020070619

---

Related: U.S. soldiers kill 22 insurgents in Iraq - AP

---

Source: Reuters

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, June 19
19 Jun 2007 07:29:26 GMT
Source: Reuters

June 19 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq
at 0700 GMT on Tuesday:

-snip-

NEAR BAQUBA - Gunmen attacked a Kurdish army unit and killed five
soldiers and wounded 15 near Baquba on Monday, said Jabar Yawir,
a spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga militia.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of 33 people were found shot in different
districts of Baghdad on Monday, police said.

NASSIRIYA - Two days of fierce fighting between gunmen loyal to
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi police have killed 23
people and wounded 110 in Nassiriya, 375 km (235 miles) south
of Baghdad, a hospital doctor said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19240036.htm

---

Related: Gunmen kill 5 Kurdish soldiers in Iraq - Reuters

[Eugene]

1. Police, gunmen clashes in Iraq's south kill 23

Source: Reuters

Police, gunmen clashes in Iraq's south kill 23
19 Jun 2007 07:18:30 GMT
Source: Reuters

(Updates with report of renewed fighting)

BAGHDAD, June 19 (Reuters) - Two days of fierce fighting
between gunmen loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and
Iraqi police have killed 23 people and wounded 110 in the
southern city of Nassiriya, a hospital doctor said on
Tuesday.

The clashes erupted on Sunday night when police attacked
a Sadr office in Nassiriya in an apparent response to an
attack on the local head of police, who was wounded.

The hospital doctor, who declined to be identified, said
many civilians were among the dead and wounded, including
women and children.

A Nassiriya resident said heavy fighting had resumed after
talks between the two sides apparently failed to secure
agreement.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19135670.htm

[ClintonTyree]

2. Viet Nam style "body counts" every day now?

In Viet Nam the official body counts were highly exaggerated to give the American people a false sense that progress was being made, that the war was being won. :eyes: Looks like the Pentagon is reverting back to that inane strategy hoping to "sell" Bush's surge. It doesn't matter. The insurgents will just lay low or move to another province and reappear when this "offensive" is completed. Apparently no one in the armed forces has picked up on that tactic yet? :eyes: For every one we kill 2 more are recruited to take their place.

And we're supposed to accept this as proof that "THE SURGE" is working? :rofl: Nice try.

[coalition_unwilling]

17. Not to mention all the deaths of terrorists disguised as children n/t

[LeftHander]

20. My thoughts exactly...body count = progress....

When are we going to learn....

:>(

[Eugene]

3. Big explosion in Baghdad - witnesses

Later thread with updates here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2885686

---

Source: Reuters

Big explosion in Baghdad - witnesses
19 Jun 2007 10:00:36 GMT
Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, June 19 (Reuters) - A big explosion rocked central
Baghdad on Tuesday, and large clouds of black smoke could be
seen rising from the scene, Reuters reporters said.

Gunfire erupted moments after the explosion, which follows a
relatively quiet period in the capital after a curfew was
imposed for four days last week.


Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19613321.htm

[bluerum]

4. Let freedom ring. eom

[annabanana]

5. So.. a "big push" going North. .

Fierce fighting in a Southern City

And a massive explosion IN Baghdad.


I fear there is going to be some very bad, very sad news coming out of this week. It will not be on the 24/7s, it will be barely covered in corpomedia..
But we will find out.

[ixion]

6. major combat offensive? you mean like the ones that were 'over' in 2003?

those combat operations?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!


Bringing Democracy to Iraq, one offensive at a time. :sarcasm:

[Breeze54]

7. This is going to be a helluva news week in Iraq.

:(

[Courtesy Flush]

8. U.S. says 10,000 troops in major Iraq offensive

Source: Washington Post

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military deployed 10,000 soldiers backed by attack helicopters in an offensive against al Qaeda north of Baghdad on Tuesday, in one of the biggest operations since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.


*************

"The end state is to destroy the al Qaeda influences in this province and eliminate their threat against the people," Brigadier-General Mick Bednarek, deputy commanding general, operations, 25th Infantry Division, said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/19/AR2007061900280.html

[Webster Green]

9. "al Qaeda "

Sure....whatever...:crazy:

[Thor_MN]

10. Unless this is just the spin, the problem appears to be going after minor players

From what I have read, al Qaeda is only a bit player in the violence in Iraq. If they really are launching "major offensives" against small time thugs, they are wasting time. September is just around the corner, so....

[pokercat999]

12. looks like the "War against Terra" can take it's

rightful place beside the "War against Drugs" and the "War against Poverty"

[babylonsister]

11. This article says 2,000 involved, though it was probably written

yesterday, so lots may have changed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/world/middleeast/19iraq.html?ref=todayspaper

[dipsydoodle]

13. I consider them being there

offensive too.

[LynnTheDem]

14. Myself, most Iraqis and most the entire world find any US troops in Iraq to be

offensive.

[bemildred]

15. Who knew that trundling around in the desert in tanks could be a form of masturbation? nt

[Nihil]

16. Yep, that mission was definitely accomplished ...

> The U.S. military deployed 10,000 soldiers backed by attack helicopters
> in an offensive against al Qaeda north of Baghdad on Tuesday, in one of
> the biggest operations since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Four years later and they are still launching major operations,
sending in 10,000 soldiers supported by attack helicopters.

What a fuck-up.

[coalition_unwilling]

18. Everyone at DU should make a point of reading Neil Sheehan's

"A Bright Shining Lie" about the life of John Paul Vann and our sad history in southeast Asia. Oh, and also read David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest" about the geniuses who got us involved in southeast Asia.

Once you've read those two books, I believe you will have the right historical context to judge all the U.S. military's agit-prop.

[Javaman]

19. How many more soldiers and civilians won't live to see tomorrow? nt

[laststeamtrain]

21. McClatchy:In Iraq, massive assault against al-Qaida ongoing

In Iraq, massive assault against al-Qaida ongoing

last updated: June 19, 2007 12:24:58 PM

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces early Tuesday launched a massive assault on Al-Qaida strongholds in and near Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, signaling the beginning of stepped-up military campaigns this summer.

More than 10,000 air and ground forces descended on Diyala province, where insurgents have killed thousands of civilians since 2003. Operation Arrowhead Ripper, the largest assault the U.S. military has mounted in Diyala, is part of a wider offensive north and south of Baghdad.

Initial U.S. military reports said 22 insurgents were killed. It’s unknown how many civilians were killed or injured. At least 7,000 U.S. soldiers are part of the Baqouba campaign, according to one unconfirmed report.

The move comes amid a surge of U.S. troops in Baghdad designed to quell insurgent and sectarian killings in the capital. U.S. forces now have more than 30,000 troops in Iraq’s largest city, and about 150,000 across the country. The additional show of force has yet to end violence or ease tension between Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

“The surge is just starting,” said Lt. Col. Chris Garver. “We’re just now kicking operations off, as we’ve seen. This is the surge that will go through the summer.”

As ground and air forces pushed into Baqouba, a truck bomb in Baghdad’s industrial Al Sinak neighborhood killed an estimated 60 civilians and wounded 130 near the Shiite Khillani mosque. The street, crammed with pedestrians and car-parts stores, is near the Sunni Al Gailani mosque, which was bombed May 28.

<more>

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/v-print/story/17111.html
*

PS: McClatchy's new site is up & working. Looks good.

[Peace Patriot]

22. I can only imagine what this escalation of the Iraq War--so Vietnam-like--is

resulting in. The dismembered children. The bombed homes. The doors smashed in. The people dragged out into the street, hooded, beaten, taken away, tortured. The carnage. The injuries. The screams of pain and despair. The nightmares that will visit our poor, misused, abused soldiers for the rest of their lives. The lies. "Al Qaeda." Right.

We may not see it on TV. But we should spend a few minutes a day trying to imagine it. The U.S. is smashing the people of Baghdad under its fascist oily boot. There is no escape for them.

I wouldn't dwell on it too much, because there is absolutely nothing we can do about it, at the moment. Our Democratic Congress voted for it. So much for our votes. So much for the 70% of the American people who didn't want this--and the 56% who opposed it from the beginning (Feb. 03). And it is this that we must address. This is OUR responsibility: How are they stealing our votes? How did the war profiteers keep an antiwar Congress from getting elected? How did they disguise it with D's by candidates' names? And you don't have to look far to know what the main mechanism of this was: "trade secret" proprietary programming code in all the new electronic voting systems, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations. And all the Democratic leaders supported it in 2002 (along with their vote for the war), and support it now. Those two acts are related: the IWR and HAVA. The one for unjust war, the other for shoving unjust war down our throats.

And we can only hope that the Iraqis who survive this war and its "surges" will one day forgive us, and know that it was done against the will of the American people, as fascists and war profiteers had destroyed our democracy.

[Nihil]

24. Ask people who were around in the late 40s and 50s ...

... how Germans & Japanese people were viewed and treated.

Clue: It wasn't all handshakes, smiles and "never mind, all that's behind
us now" ... if you want to know how "forgiven" the participants and supporters
have been, check out the late Mr. Wiesenthal's society for letting bygones
be bygones ... or possibly the treatment of the losers after 1789 ...
humans are just like that ...

Many people will control their feelings but the people who *should* be on
the receiving end of the anger - the Bushes, Cheneys, Wolfowitz & co - will
be safely beyond retribution, thus creating the frustration that can only
be taken out on the remaining people perceived as being involved.

[Eugene]

23. U.S. says 30 militants killed in big Iraq offensive

Source: Reuters

U.S. says 30 militants killed in big Iraq offensive
20 Jun 2007 04:25:15 GMT
Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, June 20 (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces
killed at least 30 al Qaeda militants and found
numerous weapons during the first full day of a big
offensive against the Sunni Islamist group north of
Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the military said a guided missile
strike destroyed a weapons cache inside a known
al Qaeda safe house.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20547526.htm

[maddezmom]

25. 'Civilians trapped'

'Civilians trapped'

There was no official acknowledgement of civilian casualties.



But the head of Baquba's emergency services told the BBC not long after the operation began that at least 12 civilians had been killed by the end of the first day, including three women.

He said that there were certainly more civilian casualties, but ambulances were being prevented by US troops from going in to evacuate them.

A number of houses had been destroyed, and there were fears that civilians might be trapped in the rubble.

People had been told by Iraqi army loudspeakers to keep off the streets and stay indoors.

more:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6769391.stm