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Fighters Remain in Iraq-Syria Border Town
QAIM, Iraq May 13, 2005 — Iraqi fighters toting machine guns and grenade launchers swaggered through the rubble-strewn streets of this town on the Syrian border Friday, setting up checkpoints and preparing to do battle despite a major U.S. offensive aimed at rooting out followers of Iraq's most-wanted militant. The remote desert region is a haven for foreign combatants who slip across the border along ancient smuggling routes and collect weapons to use in some of Iraq's deadliest attacks, according to the U.S. military. But the fighters who remain in this Sunni town some 200 miles west of Baghdad insist there are no foreigners among them. "We are all Iraqis," one gunman, his face covered with a scarf, told The Associated Press. He said the fighters were trying to prevent U.S. forces from entering the town. The 6-day-old U.S. offensive in the area one of the largest since insurgents were forced from Fallujah six months ago was launched in Qaim and is aimed at supporters of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. U.S. military spokesman Capt. Jeffrey Pool said Marines have not conducted operations inside Qaim since the opening days of the campaign, known as Operation Matador, which began overnight Saturday and led to the killing of six suspected insurgents and capture of 54 in the town. Instead, according to Pool, rival bands of insurgents are now fighting among themselves, trading mortar, gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire almost nightly. Residents acknowledge fighting in Qaim began even before the U.S. offensive, and characterized it as tribal clashes. The cause of the clashes was not immediately clear. Posted by: phil_b 2005-05-13 |
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