Five U.S. Troops Die In Iraq Push
Two Major Operations In W. Iraq, Aimed At Insurgents, Prove Deadly
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Play CBS Video Video Political Turmoil In Iraq As U.S. and Iraqi forces battle insurgents in the western part of the country, an embarrassing and potentially disastrous political problem has reared its ugly head. Allen Pizzey has the story.
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Video Iraq Progress Report Gen. John Abizaid spoke to CBS News' Bob Schieffer about the changing tactics of the insurgency and the effort to train Iraqi security forces.
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Video Operation Iron Fist U.S. troops are battling insurgents on the Iraqi-Syrian border. The American-led effort is raising new doubts about Iraqi battalions' level of preparedness. Allen Pizzey reports.
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Smoke rises near the heavily fortified Green Zone area after a car bomb explosion in Baghdad. (Getty Images)
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U.S. soldiers from Delta company 2/7 infantries division guard arrested suspects during an overnight raid Oct. 4, 2005, in the city of Tikrit. (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images)
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Black smoke billows from the site where a suicide car bomb exploded outside the entrance to the high-security "Green Zone" in Baghdad Oct. 4, 2005. (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)
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Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Interactive Attacks Map Details on the insurgency and terrorism that has continued to take lives since the fall of Saddam.
"The operation's goal is to deny Al Qaeda in Iraq the ability to operate in the three Euphrates River valley cities and to free local citizens from the insurgents' campaign of murder and intimidation of innocent women, children and men," the U.S. military said in a statement.
Iron Fist, which continued Tuesday, was aimed at al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents who receive reinforcements and supplies from Syria. At least 57 insurgents have been killed, the military said, and one U.S. Marine was reported killed. Soldiers with air support were conducting house-to-house searches for militants.
Operation River Gate was taking place in Haqlaniyah, Parwana and Haditha, three cities that have no Iraqi police or troops based in them, leaving their streets open to roving insurgent groups.
The cities, with a combined population of about 100,000, are located 90 miles east of the Iron Fist offensive and 175 miles northwest of Baghdad.
On Monday, the United Nations announced in New York that it is distributing millions of copies of Iraq's draft constitution in this country ahead of the referendum. But residents in Baghdad and several other provinces told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they have not received the document or seen it being handed out in their areas.
Meanwhile, Sunni Arab leaders continued to criticize the Shiite-dominated parliament for its weekend ruling on the constitution.
The parliament decision on Sunday was the latest instance of the Shiite-dominated government making a favorable interpretation of rules on the constitution.
Those rules state that the constitution is defeated if two-thirds of voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject it, even if an overall majority across the country approve.
Iraq's Sunni Arab minority has been counting on those rules to defeat the charter at the polls. There are four provinces where Sunni Arabs could conceivably make the two-thirds majority "no" vote. But instead, parliament, which has only 16 Sunni members, approved an interpretation stating that two-thirds of registered voters — rather than two-thirds of all those who cast ballots — must reject the constitution for the rules to apply.
The change effectively raises the bar to reach the two-thirds mark.
"This will make it impossible for residents of the Iraq's few mostly Sunni provinces to bring down the constitution," Saleh al-Mutlaq, a leading Sunni politician, told The Associated Press. "The aim of this move is to pass the constitution and to impose it on everybody regardless of their opinions."
Sunni Arab leaders fear the constitution will fragment Iraq, allowing Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north to form mini-states.
© MMV CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
