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You ain't seen nothing yet, US colonels boast
A JOINT US-Iraqi campaign to stabilise Baghdad will begin soon and the offensive against militants will be on a scale never seen during four years of war, US officers said yesterday.

Three American colonels who are senior advisers to the Iraqi army and police in Baghdad said yesterday a command centre overseeing the crackdown would be activated today.

"The expectation is the plan will be implemented soon thereafter," said Colonel Doug Heckman, senior adviser to the 9th Iraqi Army division in Baghdad.

But some analysts fear that as in previous crackdowns, militants will simply melt away and wait them out, or strike in areas where they are not deployed.
"It's going to be an operation unlike anything this city has seen. It's a multiple order magnitude of difference, not just a 30 per cent, I mean a couple of hundred per cent," he said, referring to previous offensives that failed to stem bloodshed.

The plan will involve US and Iraqi forces sweeping the capital's neighbourhoods for militants and illegal weapons, and holding cleared areas.

But some analysts fear that as in previous crackdowns, militants will simply melt away and wait them out, or strike in areas where they are not deployed.

All three officers sought to talk up the ability of Iraq's forces to perform better than in previous crackdowns.

Their comments came a day after a suicide truck bomb killed 135 people in a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad, the single biggest bombing since the US-led invasion in 2003. The joint offensive is seen as a last-ditch effort to halt all-out civil war between minority Sunni Arabs and politically dominant majority Shiites.

US President George W. Bush is sending 21,500 reinforcements, mostly to be deployed in Baghdad.

The Baghdad command centre that will begin operations today will be headed by an Iraqi general. However, US troops will not take orders from Iraqi officers.
Posted by: tipper 2007-02-05
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=179606