| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| U.S. troops target Qaeda safe haven |
| 2007-07-17 |
| South of Baghdad, thousands of US troops targeted a suspected Al Qaeda safe haven used to reinforce militants fighting in the capital, the military said. US troops targeted a suspected Al Qaeda haven in an operation called Marne Avalanche which aims to stem the flow of weapons and militant fighters into the southern part of Baghdad, where US and Iraqi forces are already fighting to clear them out, the military said in a statement. In pre-dawn raids, helicopter-borne troops swept into an area around the Euphrates river valley. A spokeswoman said at least one air strike had to be called in the early hours of the operation. “They captured a militant cell leader and seven of his lieutenants, as well as a mobile improvised explosive device factory,” said Major Alayne Conway. US and Iraqi forces have launched a series of big security clampdowns since the last of 28,000 extra US troops ordered to the country by US President George W Bush arrived a month ago. They aim to thwart violence between majority Shiites and minority Sunni Arabs, which has pushed the country towards full-scale civil war, while winning time for Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki to deliver key power-sharing laws. In the Boubal-Shama commercial district northeast of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed five Iraqi soldiers. One soldier was also wounded in the pre-dawn attack on their vehicle convoy. A pair of mortar rounds, which struck a Shiite enclave in the capital’s mainly Sunni district of Dora, also killed two people and wounded six others. Also on Monday, the US military said insurgents had killed two more American soldiers in Iraq over the weekend. A soldier was attacked during combat operations in the northern Nineveh province on Sunday, while another died in a roadside bomb attack near Baghdad on Saturday. The latest fatalities took the US military’s losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,616, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 It's got to get to the point where there are no safe havens--in the entire world for AQ. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-07-17 20:40 |
| #1 You heard it hear first. Bush goes to Iraq before he goes to Crawford. He also hopes Mother Sheheen follows him:) He has to go to get the briefing before Petraeus comes home in September with his report. He needs to be out front with the good news and progress to defeat the wind bags in Congress especially that ugly little nit wit Carl Levin and the most despicable charlatan of all, Chuck "The Dagger" Schumer. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-07-17 14:06 |