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| Iraq |
| Military launches largest Iraqi air assault since invasion |
| 2006-03-16 |
| Body count rises in Baghdad Notice the sub-headline. BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. and Iraqi forces on Thursday launched the largest air assault operation since the invasion of Iraq nearly three years ago, the U.S. military said. More than 50 aircraft are involved in Operation Swarmer, supporting more than 1,500 Iraqi and U.S. troops near Samarra, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) north of Baghdad. The aircraft also delivered troops from the Iraq and U.S. Army to "multiple objectives." The offensive began Thursday morning in southern Salaheddin province "to clear a suspected insurgent operating area northeast of Samarra," the site of the bombing of the Shiite shrine that escalated sectarian tensions and pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war. Just had to get the "Civil War" in there, didn't they. |
| Posted by:Deacon Blues |
| #27 Adwar where they caught Saddam? |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-03-16 16:59 |
| #26 I tried to post the link for the location from multimap.com but it kicked me into roadside America ?? |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-03-16 16:58 |
| #25 Thanks for finding the image, Chuck. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-03-16 16:49 |
| #24 The terrain does not look too rugged from the image. Maybe a little more rugged on the west side out of the riparian area. Judging from the drainage patterns. The east side may be flat to rolling, judging from the many trails running directly, and the fields. The main road running N/S does not have appreciable sized cuts. The towns are typical densly constructed hellholes, kinda like Fallujah. I wonder if the bad guyz are holed up in buildings in town. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-03-16 16:48 |
| #23 These are the towns they are centered on-- ----The operation, residents said, appeared to be concentrated near four villages — Jillam, Mamlaha, Banat Hassan and Bukaddou — about 20 miles north of Samarra. The villages are near the highway leading from Samarra to the city of Adwar.---- |
| Posted by: Thavilet Gluger3137 2006-03-16 16:29 |
| #22 Chuck how far is the map you posted from the Himreen Mountains? |
| Posted by: Thavilet Gluger3137 2006-03-16 16:25 |
| #21 This looks like the area. It's 20 miles north of Sammara. Terrain to the east isn't very hospitable and the river bounds the west. http://blog.simmins.org/LinkedImages//sammara_01.jpg |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-03-16 16:16 |
| #20 Get some! And if you can bring that prick Zarqawi's head out on a pole, you get bonus points! |
| Posted by: Dar 2006-03-16 14:51 |
| #19 LOL! Extra tahini please ! |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2006-03-16 14:16 |
| #18 Operation "Swarmer" If we add napalm, does it turn into "Operation Shwarma"? Sorry, it's lunchtime. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-03-16 14:00 |
| #17 must say sounds like its gone ok - no excited media clowns showing any pics of downed helos which is a big propaganda coup for the bad guys |
| Posted by: ShepUK 2006-03-16 13:26 |
| #16 What is truly encouraging about this news is that GWB is clearly not interfering with military operations for fear of casualties. (And friendly casualties do tick up when you launch offensives - enemy casualties also rise - but the media doesn't really report that or care about it). In spite of his crappy poll numbers and all the mud being slung his way by the media, GWB is pushing on. That kind of will to win is exactly what's necessary to get the job done in Iraq. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2006-03-16 13:21 |
| #15 CS: From the beginning, the terrs have been really stupid about ops. They keep gathering in one spot, as if they need the reassurance of fellow terrs. Insecurity? They do it for the same reasons we do. It's easier to keep track of everyone and everything, training is easier, discipline is easier, logistics is easier, etc, etc. It's what the opposition does or tries to do in every guerrilla war. The Afghan mujahideen guerrillas had bases that the Soviets could overrun but not hold for any appreciable period of time, even with multi-divisional attacks. When their bases are strong enough that we can't overrun them successfully is when we know things aren't peachy for our guys, since we were able to take out enemy bases at will even in South Vietnam. These weren't push button jobs - our guys usually took weeks, but they got the job done. (The problem in Vietnam was the cost - on average, we lost 20 guys KIA every single day for six to seven years). |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2006-03-16 13:16 |
| #14 From the beginning, the terrs have been really stupid about ops. They keep gathering in one spot, as if they need the reassurance of fellow terrs. Insecurity? No, they know they can't really win without a geographic base. Sure, they can cause damage, and they can keep it up forever from secure bases in Syria and Iran -- but they can't rule. And ruling is everything to them. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-03-16 13:06 |
| #13 More info from Fox's military guys: Ret. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Bob Scales said Samarra is a symbol for the insurgency in Iraq. "This is a fight not just for the control of a population but for the insurgents to sort of reinstate themselves by owning geography and Samarra is the one city where they think they can do that," Scales said. He said coalition forces are getting better intelligence each month because an increasing number of Iraqis are confident that their country will be better off once the terror elements within are wiped out. "It's the type of thing that in an insurgency, is really the key to the crown," Scales said of actionable intelligence that allows operations such as Operation Swarmer to be carried out. Ret. Army Lt. Col David Hunt, agreed that this kind of military operation would not have been launched without some very specific intelligence regarding the location and plans of Al Qaeda. "We would not commit this kind of manpower Â… and the amount of equipment it takes planning to do an air assault Â… without very specific, very good intelligence," said Hunt. The difference between Thursday's operation and the "shock and awe" campaign launched by U.S. forces when they first invaded Iraq is that the strikes launched three years ago were primarily by air. Thursday's airborne assault, on the other hand, allowed the largest insertion of coalition forces into enemy strongholds on the ground. "This is really an air-ground op but it allows you to insert a lag number of troops with tactical surprise," explained Ret. U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney. "That's why this is effective, they know that there are people that are watching them very closely so what they're trying to do is get that tactical surprise. They know Al Qaeda's in that area so they're trying to disrupt Al Qaeda." McInerney said Al Qaeda has been trying to stir up trouble by launching attacks that may lead some to believe that sectarian violence in plaguing Iraq. Hundreds of people have been killed since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra, creating concern that the country may be tipping toward civil war. A U.S. defense official told FOX News that the recent decision the send some 700 U.S. soldiers back into Iraq from their standby position in neighboring Kuwait freed up forces to launch this air assault and allowed U.S., coalition and Iraqi forces to take on a more offensive role. Amid ongoing sectarian violence, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, ordered those forces back into Iraq over the past week because of the upcoming holiday and insecurity surrounding efforts to form a new government. The 101st Airborne Division has been in and out of Iraq since the start of the war; this is the largest air assault operation because this division hasn't done anything on this scale thus far. Operation Swarmer comes on the heels of a combined Iraqi-coalition operation west of Samarra in early March that resulted in the capture of substantial enemy weapons and equipment caches, according to coalition forces. The name "Swarmer" comes from the name given to the largest peacetime airborne maneuvers ever conducted, in spring 1950 in North Carolina, according to CPIC. Soon after this exercise, the 187th Infantry was selected to deploy to Korea as an Airborne Regimental Combat Team to provide General MacArthur with an airborne capability. |
| Posted by: Sherry 2006-03-16 12:45 |
| #12 From the beginning, the terrs have been really stupid about ops. They keep gathering in one spot, as if they need the reassurance of fellow terrs. Insecurity? The name come from an airborne exercise long, long ago that resulted in MacArthur getting the 187th in Korea. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-03-16 12:42 |
| #11 man on sky squeals excitedly that is 'civel war' and my favourite is 'things are cleary getting worse!' absolute tripe - if things getting worse just because we launch a large operation, that makes no sense to me and what i know of military ops. Actually, I'd think a big operation is a signal of good things -- that either we've located someone big, or the terrs have concentrated enough that hitting them could cripple their campaign. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-03-16 12:28 |
| #10 Operation "Swarmer". How Germanic. I'll look forward to Operation "Sturmer". |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-03-16 12:24 |
| #9 Taste our pain... bitches. |
| Posted by: bgrebel 2006-03-16 12:13 |
| #8 From Sherry's link above: The operation, residents said, appeared to be concentrated near four villages - Jillam, Mamlaha, Banat Hassan and Bukaddou - about 20 miles north of Samarra. The villages are near the highway leading from Samarra to the city of Adwar. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-03-16 12:11 |
| #7 A quick and dirty Google search for Iraq + "brink of civil war" gets 231,000 hits going back to 2003. I think they're trying to tell us something. |
| Posted by: Matt 2006-03-16 12:10 |
| #6 man on sky squeals excitedly that is 'civel war' and my favourite is 'things are cleary getting worse!' absolute tripe - if things getting worse just because we launch a large operation, that makes no sense to me and what i know of military ops. How is it getting worse if we are the ones with the initiative in setting up the damn raid, how is it worse because we are taking the fight to the eneamys home? Worse would be 1000's more dead, whole armoured divisions destroyed, utter civil disorder throughout the whole of Iraq, planes being shot down every hour, chemical munitions going bang, but to say an air assault means the wars gone pear shaped is truly immensly thick! I hope we launch more ops like this if its a success and fck them and there calls of 'quagmire' the know nothing media big mouths. |
| Posted by: ShepUK 2006-03-16 12:09 |
| #5 The offensive began Thursday morning in southern Salaheddin province "to clear a suspected insurgent operating area northeast of Samarra," Iraq the Model wrote this on Friday: "A few days ago I read a short report on the al-Bayina al-Jadida newspaper that mentioned that Zarqawi had moved to the outskirts of Salahiddin and sought hide in the Himreen Mountains (these are technically hills lying Northeast of Salahiddin, southeast of Kirkuk and extend to the Iranian borders where they merge with Zagrus Mountains) for about a month before fleeing to Afghanistan through Iran. And from the same bit.. "Sheikh Usama said . .. 'We have rid about 90% of the province of Zaraqwi's criminal thugs and we are coordinating our work with the ministries of defense and interior and we had several meetings with Iraqi officials as well as General Casey. Now we believe Zarqawi had escaped to Salahiddin province and we are cooperating with the tribes of Salahiddin to find out where this criminal is hiding.'" oh please, oh please.... |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-03-16 12:05 |
| #4 more info at this site... with some bias, of course. 4th ID finally getting into the battle! Link |
| Posted by: Sherry 2006-03-16 12:04 |
| #3 Lock and load!!! |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-03-16 11:41 |
| #2 And that's why those 700 troops were moved north from Kuwait... |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-03-16 11:26 |
| #1 hey the "multiples", kick some ass for me!! YES! |
| Posted by: RD 2006-03-16 11:20 |