"...The camel-kissing, Wacko Ragheads are discovering that their hidey-holes ain't no big secret anymore........
(..This article is from the "..New York Slimes..", so you have to pardon the Hillary-placating 'whining parts'..)
Jets Said to Destroy Rebel Hide-Out in Marine Push in Iraq By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. Published: May 14, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 13 - Fighter jets flattened what the United States military said was an insurgent hide-out on Thursday, the fifth day of the Marines' 1,000-man-strong offensive in the western Iraqi desert near the Syrian border, and aid officials said the attacks were forcing hundreds of Iraqi families in the area to flee.
At least one American soldier, four members of the Iraqi military forces and five civilians were killed Friday in Baghdad and three other cities. In a particularly violent month - more than 400 Iraqis have been killed by insurgents in the last two weeks - Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari extended an emergency law that allows the government to impose curfews and take other steps to preserve law and order. The law, which Mr. Jaafari extended for 30 days, affects every part of Iraq except the relatively calm Kurdish lands in the north.
Four Palestinians were arrested on Friday in connection with a car bomb attack the day before that killed at least 15 Iraqis at a market in an eastern Baghdad neighborhood. An official from the Iraqi Interior Ministry appeared on the national television network Iraqiya and said the Palestinians were arrested nine hours after the attack with help from the Badr Brigade, the militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the powerful Shiite political party. The four were arrested at a safe house and confessed to the car blast and other crimes, the official said.
The Marines' assault in the towns along the Euphrates River near Syria is intended to root out smugglers and insurgents who had enjoyed a safe haven. American military officials say there has been little heavy fighting since the weekend and most of the remaining 200 or more suspected insurgents have gone into hiding.
However, an account from a correspondent for The Associated Press in Qaim, the largest city affected by the assault, described a scene in which "fighters armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades roamed the streets, checking vehicles as they entered and left the town." One man, covering his face with a scarf, declared, "We are trying to protect our city's entrances, and we will prevent the U.S. forces from entering the city."
On Thursday, F-18 jets used rockets and bombs to destroy a building in Karabilah that a terrorist captured during the operation had identified as an insurgent safe house, the Marines said. According to their account, at least four gunmen emerged from the building and fired as marines approached. The military said there were no Marine or civilian casualties from the attack.
There is little information about the fate of Iraqi residents in the region, a large swath of western Iraq in the Jazira desert along the Euphrates. But an official from the Iraqi Red Crescent, the Red Cross aid affiliate, said in an interview on Friday that many families had fled amid shooting and destruction.
"The situation is very bad there; we are sure that there are civilian victims," said Fardous al-Abadi, a spokeswoman for the Red Crescent. As many as 1,000 families have left the city of Qaim, she said, with most seeking refuge in Akashat, while others have traveled as far as Ramadi or have sought shelter in the desert.
Iraqi residents from the area told The A.P. that the United States military was attacking with artillery rounds. "Most of the people have fled to the desert," Samran Mukhlef Abed, a tribal leader in Saadah, told the news service. "The Americans are all around," he said, "and medical services do not exist here. If someone is hurt, we have to take him to cities that are far away from here, and that is impossible with the situation."
The Marines said in a statement Friday that "there are no additional reports of civilian casualties" but that "insurgents and foreign fighters are taking over the homes of Iraqi citizens" to evade the troops. Essential services, including water and power, have not been interrupted, but emergency health care has suffered because of a suicide car bomb a few days ago at the hospital in Haditha, 75 miles east of Qaim, the Marines said.
In other violence, a suicide car bomber in Baiji, 120 miles north of the capital, killed one American soldier and wounded four more, the military said. In Baghdad, gunmen fired on an Iraqi police patrol in the Adil district, killing two policemen and wounding three. And in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, at least two members of the Iraqi National Guard were killed and five wounded by a car bomb, the Interior Ministry said.
In the northern city of Mosul, American soldiers killed three insurgents who attacked a military convoy with small-arms fire, the military said. Then, "two more vehicles approached the convoy appearing to be hostile." Soldiers fired on the vehicles, killing five Iraqi civilians, the military said, without providing any more detail.
nytimes.com
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