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| Iraq |
| Fort Carson troops fighting and defeating al-Qaeda fighters in Diyala |
| 2006-06-10 |
| Fort Carson's 1-68 Combined Arms Battalion had been fighting the forces of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for weeks in Diyala Provice north of Baghdad, and beating them soundly, before Wednesday night's fatal strike that took out Zarqawi himself, Lt. Col. Tom Fisher said Friday. The fights had been going on since early in April, when Zarqawi announced in a video message that he intended to take over Diyala Province with his militia. He began a series of atrocities that included taking captives and decapitating them, and executing a bus load of students. Fighting reached a peak April 27, Fisher said, when about 100 Zarqawi fighters attacked a police station and five checkpoints in an area of Baqouba but were crushed by combined U.S. and Iraq forces, who killed 47, captured 33 and tracked down another nine in the ensuing days. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi units were gathering information from citizens who had tired of Zarqawi's brutal attacks on innocent civilians, finally locating him earlier this week and calling in the airstrike that killed him. "The soldiers were more than happy to get the guy who planned all that and take him out," he said. "And the locals are very happy." Fisher's soldiers were called upon to provide perimeter security after the bombing at the target in Hibhib, just a few kilometers from Baqouba. "It looks like any house that's been blown up," said Fisher. "There's a crater about 20 feet deep and 40 feet across. Bricks and debris everywhere." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 "And the locals are very happy." all politics is local |
| Posted by: Thomas ONeill Sr 2006-06-10 23:54 |