E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Tal Afar wrapping up, 400 terrorists dead or captured
Much of the article is a duplicate of the one Dan Darling posted I tried to just include the new stuff.

Fighting eased Sunday, the second day of a U.S. and Iraqi sweep through the terrorist militant stronghold of Tal Afar near the Syrian border, as terrorists insurgents melted into the countryside, many escaping through a tunnel network dug under an ancient northern city.

The 8,500-strong Iraqi-U.S. force continued house-to-house searches, and military leaders said the assault would push all along the Syrian frontier and on to Damascus in the Euphrates River valley.

Cities and towns along the fabled river are bastions of terrorism the insurgency, a collection of foreign fighters and disaffected Sunni Muslims, many of them Saddamites Hussein loyalists.

About 5,000 Iraqi soldiers, backed by a 3,500-strong American armored force, reported 156 terrorists insurgents killed and 246 captured. The force discovered a big bomb factory, 18 weapons caches and the tunnel network in the ancient Sarai neighborhood of Tal Afar, 60 miles east of the Syrian border.

"The terrorists had seen it coming (and prepared) tunnel complexes to be used as escape routes," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said in Baghdad.

Lynch said operations in Tal Afar were part of a much larger, nationwide plan to destroy terrorist insurgent and al-Qaida bases, which included ongoing operations in Mosul, Qaim and the western town of Rutba.

A group claiming to be an offshoot of al-Qaida said it would retaliate against the government and security forces in the capital.

"The Taifa al-Mansoura Army has decided to ... strike at strategic and other targets of importance for the occupation and the infidels in Baghdad by using chemical and unconventional weapons developed by the mujahedeen, unless the military operations in Tal Afar stop within 24 hours," the statement said.
How could they do that, since there were no WMD in Iraq and no outside country is supplying weapons?

It was not immediately possible to determine the authenticity of the statement, which was posted on a Web site known for its pro-terrorism militant contents.

Iraqi Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi said the sweep of Tal Afar was carried out at the request of city residents and would be a model as his forces attacked other insurgent-held cities in quick succession.

"After the Tal Afar operation ends, we will move on Rabiyah (on the Syrian border) and Sinjar (a region north of nearby Mosul) and then go down to the Euphrates valley," al-Dulaimi said.

"We are warning those who have given shelter to terrorists that they must stop, kick them out or else we will cut off their hands, heads and tongues as we did in Tal Afar," al-Dulaimi said, apparently using figurative language. That's what you think...

Posted by: Jackal 2005-09-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=129282