The AP reports, via
Yahoo News the latest military operation near the Syrian border was a big success:
OBEIDI, Iraq - The U.S. military wrapped up a major offensive in a remote desert region near the Syrian border Saturday, saying it had cleaned out the insurgent haven and killed more than 125 militants during the weeklong campaign against followers of Iraq's most wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Well, looks like we've turned a corner!
More inside...
AP Continues:
More than 1,000 Marines, soldiers and sailors participated in the operation, killing more than 125 insurgents, wounding many others and detaining 39 "of intelligence value," the military said in a statement. It provided no further information about the detainees.
39 detainees of "intelligence value."
Numerous weapons caches containing machine guns, mortar rounds and rockets were discovered. Six car bombs and material for making other improvised explosive devises were also found, the statement said.
The military said the operation confirmed its intelligence about a region north of the Euphrates River, including the existence of "cave complexes" used by insurgents in the nearby escarpment. It did not elaborate.
Caches! Caves!
Well, we should be in good shape then!
Sorry to be cynical, but I think we've heard all this before.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Iraq it's the same old thing:
Separately, U.S. military and Iraqi authorities reported more violence:
- In Baghdad, insurgents killed 10 people in bombings and shootings Saturday, including five Iraqis near the Ministry of Industry and Minerals. A car bomb there apparently targeted a police patrol.
- Also in Baghdad, a senior official of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, Jasim Mohammed Ghiri, was shot dead in front of his house. Three neighbors, who were also standing in front of the house, were wounded.
- South of Baghdad, police discovered three beheaded male bodies in a deserted area.
- A suicide car bomb detonated in Baquba, northeast of the capital, wounding two Iraqi policemen and a civilian. In northern Mosul two suicide car bomb attacks were carried out; one claimed the lives of two Iraqi civilians and occurred near a multinational force convoy.
Other developments
- A 30-year-old male detainee at the Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq died Saturday of "an apparent heart attack," according to a U.S. military news release.
- Multinational forces in northern Iraq detained more than 20 suspected insurgents and discovered a large number of weapons, the American military said. The operations were in Mosul, Tal Afar and Qayyara. Also, a tip from a citizen there led to a bomb that was later defused.
More suicide bombs. More dead bodies. More detainees...
We must find a way out of this mess. For two years we've been turning a corner.
It's time for President Bush to get us out of this mess. Change something. Change tactics. Fire Rumsfeld.
Do SOMETHING different.