You've just got to admire the fortitude and courage of the Iraqi people, and mourn with them that so many of their people are being cut down by the murdering criminal scum who fortunately aren't having it all their own way. I also mourn the deaths of the US soldiers KIA.
I believe this operation is still underway, and may be the reason for the spate of recent car-bomb murders. An attempt to get the US back to Baghdad?
U.S. forces have killed 75 insurgents so far in a new offensive in Western Iraq near the Syrian border, the military announced Monday.
The offensive, being conducted with U.S. air support in a desert area of Anbar province north of the Euphrates River, was targeting a sanctuary for foreign insurgents and a smuggling route.
As part of the offensive, Marines on Sunday battled insurgents in Ubaydi, in northwestern Iraq, and other nearby areas. The Marines, supported by Cobra attack helicopters, came under mortar and small-arms fire, according to a reporter accompanying the units.
Col. Stephen Davis, commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team-2, which is responsible for western Anbar province, said one Marine was killed and at least seven were wounded in the fighting.
A number of fighters were wearing flak jackets, which Davis said was unusual for Iraqi insurgents and reflected the influence of foreign fighters.
The offensive reflects the view of senior U.S. commanders who are giving higher priority to combating foreign fighters and Iraqi jihadists in response to the recent upsurge in suicide attacks and other developments that indicate a more prominent role in the insurgency by these radical groups.
Also on Sunday, the military announced that U.S. forces have arrested the alleged mastermind of last month's assault on Abu Ghraib prison and the organizer of recent lethal car bombings in Baghdad, the Iraqi government and U.S. military said Sunday.
Amar Adnan Muhammad Hamzah Zubaydi, detained Thursday in an early morning raid on his home, was described as an associate of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi, according to separate statements issued by the Iraqi government and U.S. military officials.
