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Jets Drop 220kg Bombs in Iraq
US F-16 fighter planes dropped a series of 220 kg bombs on insurgent targets in western Iraq overnight as the US military launched a heavy offensive against rebels near the Syrian border. Nine of the powerful bombs were dropped, the US military said, two of them targeting suspected rebel safe houses near the town of Qaim, an insurgent stronghold on the Euphrates river about 20 km east of Iraq's border with Syria. Four more were aimed at rebels as they fired mortars and assault rifles at US ground forces near Qaim, and a further three were used to hit suspected weapons caches in the area. The airpower was in support of Operation Spear, the third major offensive US forces have launched in western Iraq in the past six weeks with the aim of crushing insurgent activity in the Euphrates valley which stretches northwest to Syria."Operation Spear ... began in the early morning hours with the objectives of rooting out insurgents and foreign fighters and disrupting insurgent support systems in and around Karabila," Capt. Jeffrey Pool of the US Marines said in a statement from Ramadi, capital of the surrounding Anbar region. Residents in Karabila, a suburb of Qaim where the suspected weapons caches were targeted, said fierce gunbattles broke out overnight and continued. Posted by: Fred 2005-06-18 |
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