News 2005

US troops in major Iraq operation
June 17, 2005

By BBC News:

The US military has launched a major offensive involving some 1,000 troops to root out insurgents and foreign fighters in western Iraq.
Heavy gun battles could be heard as Operation Spear got under way in the early hours in the restive province of Anbar on the border with Syria.

It follows a week of attacks which left at least 11 American soldiers dead.

Meanwhile in Baghdad, a car bomb has gone off near a truck carrying fuel, injuring at least four people.

The blast happened near a Shia mosque in the capital's south-eastern Kamaliya suburb. Fuel from the tank leaked onto the street and set a house on fire.

Police sources said the driver appeared to have rammed the fuel lorry although a passing Iraqi army patrol may have been the original intended target.

'Insurgent haven'

The US operation in western Iraq began before dawn, with witnesses reporting fierce gun battles in the towns of Qaim and Karabila.

Fighter planes dropped bombs on suspected rebel safe houses and weapons caches in the area, some 20km (12 miles) east of Iraq's border with Syria.

Other bombs reportedly targeted rebels who were firing at US ground forces.

"Operation Spear ... began in the early morning hours with the objectives of rooting out insurgents and foreign fighters and disrupting insurgent support systems in and around Karabila," said Captain Jeffrey Pool of the US Marines.

The leader of Qaim's Muslim Clerics Association called on businesses to remain closed in protest at the US attack, which, he says, is endangering civilian lives.

"The US forces are escalating the situation and we will declare a general strike after Friday prayers," Mudhafar al-Ani was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

American officials say the western border area has become a new haven for insurgents who sheltered in Falluja until the US offensive last November.

They say that foreign fighters continue to slip into the country from Syria, but Damascus rejects the accusations.

 

Source Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4103418.stm