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U.S. crackdown nets more insurgents
Looks like Reuters is getting a clue. A report remarkable for its factual tone - EFL
U.S. troops have intensified a crackdown on anti-American insurgents across restive central Iraq after score-settling killings raised fears of more violence in the south of the country. Only one U.S. soldier is known to have been killed by hostile fire since the announcement of Saddam’s arrest. Saddam loyalists and Islamist fighters have killed 200 U.S. soldiers since Washington announced an end to major combat on May 1.
You mean it looks like things are improving?
Western security sources warn that the threat of attacks has not diminished. Intelligence indicates more attacks are planned against U.S. and Western targets in Iraq over the Christmas period.
Of course things can’t get better. They have to get worse.
A roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad shortly before midnight, just missing a U.S. patrol and slightly injuring two Iraqi passers-by.
Mmm! Maybe those Isreali devices really work.
Witnesses said on Sunday U.S. troops were conducting a second day of house-to-house searches in the town of Rawah, close to the Syrian border. Soldiers manning checkpoints were stopping cars from entering the town. Residents said scores, some former Baath party members, had been arrested. Witnesses in the town of Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad, said five people were arrested in a pre-dawn raid on a number of houses. In the defiant town of Samarra to the east, the U.S. military said on Saturday night 111 people had been arrested within 48 hours as part of "Operation Ivy Blizzard" to flush out guerrillas. It said 15 of those arrested were targeted as prominent figures in anti-U.S. activities throughout the area. Caches of weapons and ammunition were also seized.
Keep on scrubbing. If you let up, you'll let them get their balance back and have to start all over again...
In a surprise pre-Christmas trip on Saturday, Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar made a morale-boosting visit to Spanish troops in Iraq. "I fully back the work that our compatriots are doing here. This is a fight for a just cause, the cause of freedom, democracy, stability and respect for international law," Aznar said during his short stop at the southern Diwaniya town on his first trip to Iraq since the U.S.-led war. Despite strong opposition to the war among the Spanish public, Spain has 1,300 soldiers in Iraq who are still reeling from a huge blow in November when Iraqis killed seven Spanish intelligence officers.
I am really curious about the Spanish public's current attitude to the participation in Iraq. Anzar went out on far more of a limb than any of the other military participants. I respected Bush, Blair and Howard over the decision, but I admire Anzar’s stand. He had everything to loose. Any Spanish readers of Rantburg?
Posted by: phil_b 2003-12-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=23115