Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
December 2, 2006
Pg. 11
Military Reports 28 Arrested in Operation Targeting Insurgents
By Thomas Wagner, Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 -- U.S. and Iraqi forces launched six raids against insurgents Friday, including one that killed at least three Iraqis and another in which American forces wounded an Iraqi female who the U.S. command said was being used as a "human shield."
The U.S. military also reported that an American soldier was killed in combat in the capital Thursday.
In some of the fiercest fighting Friday, Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. helicopters swept through Fadhil, one of the oldest areas of Baghdad, and engaged in house-to-house combat, police Lt. Ali Muhsin said. The neighborhood is about a mile from the heavily fortified Green Zone, where Iraq's parliament and foreign diplomatic facilities are based.
Fighting in the narrow streets and alleys, suspected insurgents with rifles and machine guns killed one Iraqi soldier and two civilians, Muhsin said. U.S. helicopter gunships hovered overhead but did not open fire on the crowded neighborhoods of one-story homes, he said.
State-run al-Iraqiya television said 43 suspected insurgents were taken into custody. Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a U.S. military spokesman, said 28 people were detained in an operation aimed at capturing insurgents.
U.S. forces killed two insurgents and detained 27 Iraqis in five other raids. The sweeps took place in Baghdad, the town of Yusufiyah to the south, and two locations to the north: near Taji, the U.S. Air Force base, and the town of Tarmiyah.
In the Taji area, soldiers killed one insurgent and wounded "a female local national who was being used as human shield by the terrorist," the U.S. command said. The female, whose name and age were not given, was hospitalized, it said.
It was the fourth time this week that a female Iraqi civilian has been killed or wounded in crossfire between U.S. forces and insurgents.
"Terrorists continue to deliberately place innocent Iraqi women and children in danger by their actions and presence," the U.S. statement said.
Meanwhile, a U.S. official announced that President Bush will meet with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite Muslim politicians. The meeting, to take place Monday, will focus on the continued bid to find a new approach to ending sectarian violence, said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Hakim is the leader of the United Iraqi Alliance coalition, the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament.
Next month, Bush will meet with a Sunni Arab leader, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Sectarian attacks continued Friday in Baghdad, with at least 12 Iraqis killed and a Sunni mosque damaged, despite a weekly four-hour vehicle ban aimed at preventing suicide car bombings during prayers.
The bullet-riddled bodies of 14 Kurdish farmers were found in a village 28 miles west of the Syrian border, said Dekhel Qasim, a provincial official.
Gunmen also kidnapped the Sunni head of one of Iraq's leading soccer clubs on Thursday and, in separate incidents Friday, abducted two Iraqi women, ages 17 and 20.
December 2, 2006
Pg. 11
Military Reports 28 Arrested in Operation Targeting Insurgents
By Thomas Wagner, Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 -- U.S. and Iraqi forces launched six raids against insurgents Friday, including one that killed at least three Iraqis and another in which American forces wounded an Iraqi female who the U.S. command said was being used as a "human shield."
The U.S. military also reported that an American soldier was killed in combat in the capital Thursday.
In some of the fiercest fighting Friday, Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. helicopters swept through Fadhil, one of the oldest areas of Baghdad, and engaged in house-to-house combat, police Lt. Ali Muhsin said. The neighborhood is about a mile from the heavily fortified Green Zone, where Iraq's parliament and foreign diplomatic facilities are based.
Fighting in the narrow streets and alleys, suspected insurgents with rifles and machine guns killed one Iraqi soldier and two civilians, Muhsin said. U.S. helicopter gunships hovered overhead but did not open fire on the crowded neighborhoods of one-story homes, he said.
State-run al-Iraqiya television said 43 suspected insurgents were taken into custody. Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a U.S. military spokesman, said 28 people were detained in an operation aimed at capturing insurgents.
U.S. forces killed two insurgents and detained 27 Iraqis in five other raids. The sweeps took place in Baghdad, the town of Yusufiyah to the south, and two locations to the north: near Taji, the U.S. Air Force base, and the town of Tarmiyah.
In the Taji area, soldiers killed one insurgent and wounded "a female local national who was being used as human shield by the terrorist," the U.S. command said. The female, whose name and age were not given, was hospitalized, it said.
It was the fourth time this week that a female Iraqi civilian has been killed or wounded in crossfire between U.S. forces and insurgents.
"Terrorists continue to deliberately place innocent Iraqi women and children in danger by their actions and presence," the U.S. statement said.
Meanwhile, a U.S. official announced that President Bush will meet with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite Muslim politicians. The meeting, to take place Monday, will focus on the continued bid to find a new approach to ending sectarian violence, said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Hakim is the leader of the United Iraqi Alliance coalition, the largest bloc in the Iraqi parliament.
Next month, Bush will meet with a Sunni Arab leader, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Sectarian attacks continued Friday in Baghdad, with at least 12 Iraqis killed and a Sunni mosque damaged, despite a weekly four-hour vehicle ban aimed at preventing suicide car bombings during prayers.
The bullet-riddled bodies of 14 Kurdish farmers were found in a village 28 miles west of the Syrian border, said Dekhel Qasim, a provincial official.
Gunmen also kidnapped the Sunni head of one of Iraq's leading soccer clubs on Thursday and, in separate incidents Friday, abducted two Iraqi women, ages 17 and 20.