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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Tal Afar baddies encircled |
| 2005-09-09 |
| The U.S. military said Thursday that it and Iraqi forces had encircled an insurgent stronghold at Tal Afar and the Iraqi military announced the arrest of 200 suspected insurgents, most of them foreign fighters. The Iraqi military said 150 of those arrested Wednesday in the town near the Syrian border were Arabs from Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan. The United States is considering an all-out attack in the coming weeks against the town, which it sees as a stronghold of rebellion, a U.S. general said on Thursday. "In Tal Afar, coalition forces and members of the Iraqi security forces are preparing a possible military operation to rid that city of insurgents," Major General Rick Lynch said at a news briefing in Baghdad. "As we speak, operations are ongoing to evacuate civilians from neighborhoods targeted by the insurgents." The joint forces have reported heavy battles on the outskirts of the city and several bombings that have mainly killed civilians. Iraqi authorities reported most of the civilian population had fled the city, which is 420 kilometers, or 260 miles, north of Baghdad and about 55 kilometers from the Syrian border. "Our forces arrested 150 non-Iraqi Arabs yesterday in addition to 50 Iraqi terrorists with fake documents as they were trying to flee the city" with the civilian families, said an Iraqi Army captain, Mohammed Ahmed. "We ordered the families to evacuate the Sunni neighborhood of Sarai, which is believed to be the main stronghold of the insurgents," Ahmed said Eight civilians were killed in the city Wednesday by a suicide car bomber at an Iraqi checkpoint, he said. On Thursday, the U.S. military said the American-Iraqi force had killed seven insurgents in the past two days. Tal Afar's populace is mainly Sunnis. After the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the United States installed a largely Shiite leadership in the city, including the mayor and much of the police force. The Sunnis have complained of oppression by the government and have turned to the insurgents - who are mainly fellow Sunnis - for protection. Early Thursday, a militant Web site broadcast a videotape showing the destruction of a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Tal Afar. The video, emblazoned with the logo of Al Qaeda in Iraq, said the armored vehicle had been struck by a roadside bomb. A U.S. military official said two Bradleys had been hit by roadside bombs in recent days and a soldier killed. Also Thursday, the police reported finding 17 unidentified bodies - 15 near the farming town of Mahmoudiya and 2 on Baghdad's outskirts. The bodies found by soldiers and police near Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, were in civilian clothes, with no identification documents. The victims had been shot, said Lieutenant Adnan Abdulla of the police. The two bodies found near a sewage plant on the outskirts of Baghdad were blindfolded and handcuffed, police said. In central Baghdad, a suicide car bomber targeted a passing convoy of private U.S. security agents, wounding three passers-by. The blast near the heavily fortified Sadir Hotel sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky in the busy Karradah neighborhood. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 The Iraqi military said 150 of those arrested Wednesday in the town near the Syrian border were Arabs from Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan. What? No Saudis? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-09-09 09:05 |
| #1 The number of foreign fighters (a.k.a., terrorists) differs considerably from Gen. Demsey's interview yesterday. Demsey said only 20 perc. where outside terrorists. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-09-09 07:59 |