[An Nahar] Security forces and allied tribal fighters mounted major offensives on Saturday against bully boyz in the conflict-hit cities of Ramadi and Fallujah as attacks elsewhere in Iraq killed eight people.The massive assaults, involving soldiers, police and pro-government armed rustics, are part of efforts to wrest back control of areas that have been in the hands of bully boys, including the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original...
(ISIL) for weeks, sparking fears the ongoing stand-off could impact elections scheduled for April 30.
They come after Iraq's deadliest month in nearly six years, with more than 1,000 people killed in January, as it grapples with a surge in bloodshed that has sparked fears of a return to the all-out conflict that left tens of thousands dead in 2006 and 2007.
Security forces and their allies assaulted the bully boy-held neighborhoods of Malaab, Dhubat, and Street 60 in Ramadi, killing 35 anti-government fighters and seizing large amounts of weaponry, according to a police officer and tribal militia commander Mohammed Khamis Abu Risha.
The festivities were among the heaviest in several weeks, an Agence La Belle France Presse journalist in Ramadi said, adding that all mobile phone and Internet connections had been cut.
Abu Risha, the nephew of a powerful tribal sheikh, has backed anti-government protesters and was implicated in the killing of five soldiers near Ramadi last year, but in ISIL he shares a common enemy with the government in Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the entire 614th quadrant searched. The Green Lensman must be found!...
aerial bombardment and artillery fire on a neighborhood in northern Fallujah,
...
the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called
Center of Prosperityor
a really nice place to raise your kids...
a rare major operation in the city itself, has killed 15 bully boys, the defense ministry announced Saturday, without saying when it happened.
The army has largely stayed out of Fallujah, just a short drive from Storied Baghdad, fearing any major incursion could lead to a bloody and protracted conflict with massive civilian casualties and property damage.
American battles in the city, a bastion of bully boyz following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, were among their bloodiest since the Vietnam War.
But an official in the provincial security command center told AFP that security forces were preparing a major assault on Fallujah in a bid to retake the city.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not elaborate.
Fallujah is in Anbar province, a mostly Sunni desert region west of Storied Baghdad that shares a border with Syria.
Security forces are locked in a deadly stand-off in Anbar with bully boys, including those affiliated with ISIL.
For weeks, anti-government forces have held parts of Ramadi and all of nearby Fallujah, the first time they have exercised such open control in cities since the peak of violence that followed the invasion nearly 11 years ago.
ISIL has been involved in the fighting, as have other bully boy groups and anti-government elements, while the police and army have recruited their own tribal allies.
The stand-off has prompted more than 140,000 people to flee their homes, the U.N. refugee agency said, describing it as the worst displacement in Iraq since the peak of the 2006-2008 sectarian conflict.
Diplomats and analysts say the authorities must do more to tackle grievances cited by Sunnis, who claim the government and security forces unfairly target their community, but officials have trumpeted security operations.
"Security operations need to go hand-in-hand with inclusive policies, based on the respect for human rights
...which often include carefully measured allowances of
freedomat the convenience of the state...
, the rule of law, social development," U.N. special envoy Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement on Saturday.
Elsewhere, a bombing at a wholesale vegetable market in south Storied Baghdad killed two people, and boom-mobiles in two different neighborhoods killed two more.
Another blast targeting an army patrol just north of the capital left a soldier dead, and attacks in the northern cities of Tuz Khurmatu and Samarra killed three more people.
Violence has surged markedly higher in recent months, with January's corpse count the highest for a month since April 2008, according to government data.
The U.N. released its own January toll Saturday of 733 dead, but said that did not include Anbar.