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| Iraq |
| Iraq General Among 15 Soldiers Killed In Raid On Qaida |
| 2013-12-22 |
| [AnNahar] Five senior Iraqi officers, including a divisional commander, and 10 soldiers were killed Saturday in a raid on an al-Qaeda hideout in the west of the country, military officers said. Violence elsewhere killed five coppers, including the police chief of Al-Sharqat district northwest of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , and maimed five others, police and a doctor said. Mohammed al-Karoui, the commander of the army's 7th Division, was leading an operation to attack "hideouts of gunnies belonging to the al-Qaeda organization" in Sunni-majority Anbar province, which borders Syria. He was killed along with four other senior army officers and 10 soldiers when they attacked a camp near Rutba, 380 kilometers (235 miles) west of Storied Baghdad, the military officers said. Soldiers were attacked by jacket wallahs during the assault on the camp and hit by bombs that went kaboom!when they entered buildings, the sources said, without specifying at what point the officers died. The defense ministry said the operation was launched after reports that al-Qaeda gunnies had set up camps in the area to train gunnies in bomb-making. Intelligence indicated that "the al-Qaeda terrorist organization opened camps to train its terrorist elements to make bombs and boom belts" as well as boom-mobiles, and that more than 60 gunnies were present in the Wadi Huran region of Anbar province, the ministry said. Reconnaissance flights pinpointed targets, which helicopters then attacked ahead of the ground assault. Karoui's unit was tracking fleeing suspects when a bomb went kaboom!, killing the major general, the other officers and the soldiers, the ministry added. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who also heads the armed forces, offered his condolences. "These heroes... were carrying out the most noble battles against the enemies of God and humanity," said Maliki. "They are fighting battles daily" to protect Iraq and its people, he said. 'Eradicate malevolent gangs' Maliki also urged the armed forces "to strike with an iron fist... these malevolent gangs and track them down wherever they may be and eradicate them from Iraq". Two years after the U.S. pullout, security forces have been struggling to curb violence that has surged this year to levels unseen since 2008, when Iraq was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict. In November, Maliki traveled to Washington where he discussed with President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... how to "push back" al-Qaeda, which has been blamed for the surge in violence, the U.S. leader said at the time. Maliki took along a wish list of U.S. military hardware Storied Baghdad says it needs to rebuild its armed forces which were battered in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. A joint statement at the time said both sides agreed on the need "for additional equipment for Iraqi forces to conduct ongoing operations in remote areas where terrorist camps are located". In other violence Saturday, a kaboom killed Al-Sharqat police chief Colonel Ahmed al-Battawi and maimed five coppers as they were on patrol northwest of Storied Baghdad, police and a doctor said. Another four coppers were killed in attacks on checkpoints in Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperityor a really nice place to raise your kids... west of the capital, security officials said. The Western desert province of Anbar borders war-torn Syria and is a bastion of al-Qaeda. La Belle France and Turkey have also offered to help Iraq battle the growing violence, where more people were killed in the first eight days of this month than in all of December last year. Over 480 people have now been killed in violence so far this month, and more than 6,600 since the beginning of 2013, according to Agence La Belle France Presse figures based on security and medical sources. Analysts say widespread discontent among Iraq's minority Sunni Arab community is a major factor fueling the surge in unrest. The 33-month war in Syria, which has bolstered bad boy groups, has also played a role. And although the government has made some concessions aimed at placating Sunni Arabs, including freeing prisoners and raising the salaries of Sahwa fighters, underlying issues remain unaddressed. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 Can anyone explain what a general and 4 senior officers were doing within 2 km of a bad guy camp? Inside job perhaps? Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2013-12-22 13:07 |