BAGHDAD, Jan. 9, 2008
9 U.S. Troops Killed In New Iraq Offensive
Military Says 6 Soldiers Killed In Booby-Trapped House In Diyala; 3 Others Die In Salahuddin
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U.S. army soldiers from 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, inspect the damage on an armored vehicle after it was hit by a roadside bomb during the initial phase of Operation Raider Harvest in the volatile Diyala province, Iraq, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008. The U.S. military said Wednesday that six American soldiers were killed in booby-trapped house during the operation in Diyala. (AP Photo)
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The two deadly attacks came as many militants fled American and Iraqi forces massing in Diyala, a province of palm and citrus groves that has defied the trend toward lower violence. The campaign's scope is nationwide but is mostly focused on gaining control of the province and its most important city, Baqouba, which al Qaeda has declared the capital of its self-styled Islamic caliphate.
Six soldiers were killed and four were wounded Wednesday in a booby-trapped house in Diyala. The military also announced that three U.S. soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an attack Tuesday in Salahuddin province, north of Diyala.
All indications are that the al Qaeda fighters retreated north from Diyala, presumably to Salahuddin, before the current operation began Tuesday, said the top U.S. commander in northern Iraq, Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling.
"Operational security in Iraq is a problem," Hertling said Wednesday, noting that the Iraqi army uses unsecured cell phones and radios. "I'm sure there is active leaking of communication."
Only Baghdad province has been deadlier than Diyala the past two years, according to an Associated Press count.
And while violence has declined over the past six months in Baghdad and many other places in Iraq, much of Diyala has remained a killing field. At least 273 civilians were slain in Diyala last month, compared to 213 in June. Over the same span, monthly civilian deaths in Baghdad dropped from 838 to 182.
The reason for the surge of bloodshed is that insurgents who were pushed out of the western province of Anbar and out of Baghdad shifted their operations into Diyala, U.S. commanders say.
Still, the tree-lined farm region is more difficult terrain for fighting insurgents than the desert of Anbar, suggesting Diyala may not have seen the last of al Qaeda in Iraq. Compounding the difficulty for the military is the checkerboard pattern of Shiite and Sunni communities adjacent to one another.
The military will need a period of peace and stability to meet its goal of speeding up work on basic services and other civic projects that commanders believe will win more allies for the American effort.
Speaking in Baghdad, Hertling said there would be three basic phases to the offensive:
First, U.S. and Iraqi forces will try to clear areas of insurgents. Iraqi police will then move in to establish some law and order. Finally, the "Awakening Groups" or "Concerned Local Citizens" - mostly Sunni fighters who have joined the Americans in battling al Qaeda - will be relied upon to maintain stability after troops move on.
It is these Awakening Groups that are al Qaeda's bulls-eye of the moment. The terror group, perhaps spurred by Osama bin Laden's audio message late last year, has been carrying out suicide strikes on civilians who have sided with the Americans against al Qaeda in Iraq.
There have been other types of attacks as well. Hertling showed a video taken by a U.S. drone showing militants in Diyala dragging a man from the trunk of a car, throwing him into a ditch and then shooting him.
Asked about the timing of the U.S. operation, Hertling said the answer was simple.
"Why now? Because we can. Baghdad is more secure. Anbar is more secure," he said. "Why now? Because ... the enemy has moved into these (northern) provinces."
Hertling said that in his area of control - Diyala, Salahuddin, Kirkuk and Nineveh provinces - 24,000 American soldiers, 50,000 members of the Iraq army and 80,000 Iraqi police are taking part in the offensive against al Qaeda in Iraq.
"There are more U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Diyala now than there ever has been," he said. "We're attempting to increase the tempo of operations in that specific province."
Hertling said his troops had killed 20 to 30 insurgents so far.
Meanwhile, in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, a pair of nearly simultaneous car bombings damaged two Christian churches and wounded two people, according to a senior police officer there. Brig. Sarhat Qadir said the bombings at the Chaldean church of the Heart of Jesus and the Assyrian church of Mar Afram took place within 10 minutes of each other.
The two churches, about 700 yards apart, were empty at the time of the attacks, which came after a series of bombings Sunday targeted three churches in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. No one was hurt in those attacks.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, told the Vatican's ambassador to Iraq on Tuesday that his government was working to ensure the safety of Christians in the country.
Christians, who make up about 3 percent of Iraq's estimated 26 million people, have been frequent targets of attacks by militants since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Many have fled to neighboring countries.
In other developments:
Service Association, the union that represents U.S. diplomats.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- Nine more of our finest gone, more blood spilled in this unjust war, more blood on bush''''s hands.
Posted by irishbitch11 at 07:58 AM : Jan 10, 2008
When it comes down to Leadership, President Teddy Roosevelt led the charge in battle. President Kennedy was himself in battle, and his big brother died in the war.
We have a new breed of cowards in charge now. Draft Dodgers are the "Leaders", and Congress and most government leaders would never let their kids into the military. That''s only for the poor (think War on Poverty.)
Let''s not forget the airchair Generals who sit safely in their bunkers watching the carnage on a screen. They ar engaged in very important work, ordering rubber bags.
When I was in the Viet Nam war, without a gun anywhere in the building, I wondered if I should throw my stapler or the typewriter if a Viet Cong barged in with AK-47 blazing.
And so, I wondered who actually did the "fighting."
Ask an airman, and he would say "The Army."
Ask a soldier and he would probably say "Marines."
Ask a marine and he would probably reply "Green Berets, Blue Berets or Red Berets, or another colour.
Ask them and they probably would reply "Special Forces."
Ask Special Forces and they probably would reply "Mercenary Contractors."
Ask the latter and they would probably say "What you mean WE, Kemo Sabay?
I get it now. All we can manage is Bomb, RunAway and Hide.
Is it anywonder why the World''s Only Superpower lost two wars in the Near East? - Reply to this comment
- "...Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves..."
Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot
Thank you for reminding us of Carl''s wisdom xraytwonine.
ST
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com - Reply to this comment
- 3,000 More Marines Slated For Afghanistan
Afghanistan is where the REAL WAR IS - Bush did not finish the job there and went into Iraw on a Personal Vendetta and Now the US has to go back into Afghanistan to basically start over since the Taliban have re-grouped and are starting to fight back - AGAIN.
Way to fight a war - Bush/Cheney! - Reply to this comment
- "BUSH; JUST HAPPENS TO OWN (ALONG WITH HIS DAD);
A PARTNERSHIP IN A BODY BAG COMPANY, ONLY IN AMERIKA"
joyous88
Yikes!!!
Please tell me you''re kidding fellow patriot.
ST
"I do not prefer one form of tyranny over another."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com - Reply to this comment
- 3000 more body bags
- Reply to this comment
- BUSH; JUST HAPPENS TO OWN (ALONG WITH HIS DAD);
A PARTNERSHIP IN A BODY BAG COMPANY, ONLY IN AMERIKA - Reply to this comment
- Whack-a-mole.
Hardly a military strategy.
And the torture and murder of anonymous prisoners never even charged with a crime?
Completely anti-American.
ST
"I writhed in anguish for years. Always knowing pain was coming, but never knowing what I should attempt to say next, or how I should appear so that my American torturers would believe me.
The problem was that I was innocent."
SearingTruth
"A whisper of horror.
That''s all we could hear."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com - Reply to this comment
- 9 more unnecessary and completely preventable American deaths
- Reply to this comment
- denn034,,, We share the same thoughts for them, the are hero''s..
.. My son in law is a Marine Sgt, & my neice today took her Army Oath of Enlistment today... I''m retired Navy & we don''t have to agree with you on Iraq, & we don''t,,,,, that was a war of the wrong choice. - Reply to this comment
- Condolences to the family and friends of those 9 heroic soldiers. Try as one might, there''s no way to avoid casualties in war, there were even 150 killed in Desert Storm. Those 9 and all of the others have died heroically and demeaning their presence in Iraq and what and why they did what they did demeans their deaths and that''s repugnant. Those soldier''s death were meaningful. This Desert Storm veteran appreciates their sacrifices as well as their family and friends. True patriots, indeed!
- Reply to this comment
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
