NC,
Wish Bush hadnt wasted all that time before the election in getting this done. Confab in egypt firmly behind new iraq. Sunni states urge iraqi sunnis to play ball. Zarquawi in latest tape attacking islamic scholars for not opposing occupation strongly enough. IF you remember zarquawis intercepted note to obl fearing a bad outcome, and look at all the above factors objectively, there is the possibility that things are turning in iraq to our advantage. 60/40 imo for successful elections and outcome in january. Of course the posters on this thread rooting against a free iraq in order to be proven right, would be blasting me now but they cant now because they have me on ignore. (g)
cnn.com
U.S.: Different tactics used in latest Iraqi offensive
Campaign targets Babil province 'in very focused way'
Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Posted: 9:40 AM EST (1440 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An ongoing U.S.-Iraq campaign against insurgents south of Baghdad will be very different from the recent offensive in Falluja, a U.S. Marine spokesman said Wednesday.
"You don't have 5,000 troops sweeping across the Iraqi countryside," Capt. David Nevers of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit said. "What we're doing here is developing intelligence patiently and persistently, going after targets in a very focused way."
Iraqi SWAT forces, backed by elements of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, launched Operation Plymouth Rock on Tuesday. It involves more than 5,000 Iraqi, U.S. and British forces in Iraq's Babil province.
"In the coming days -- and already we've begun -- Iraqi security forces, U.S. Marines, their British allies will conduct a multitude of operations aimed at capturing or killing those who are violently opposing Iraq's path to peace and democracy and freedom," Nevers said.
The operation will involve "a lot of precision raids and house-to-house searches," Nevers said.
"The insurgents are not going to know when we're coming," he said.
There had been increased attacks in northern Babil before the Falluja offensive that U.S. and Iraqi forces attributed in part to insurgents who fled Falluja to the Babil province.
Meanwhile, Iraq's interim defense minister was quoted by an Arabic-language newspaper Tuesday as saying he cannot guarantee the safety of voters or candidates in the country's elections scheduled for January 30.
"You ask me as defense minister, will I be able to provide safety for candidates and voters? I say no, I have no plan until now," Hazem Sha'alan was quoted as telling London, England-based Asharq Al-Awsat.
"The Iraqi citizen doesn't know what elections are and doesn't know who the candidates are or who the voter is."
Sha'alan, a 57-year-old tribal leader with a background in economics and real estate, said he planned to run as an independent candidate in the elections for a transitional national assembly.
In the interview, he also referred to a "vile coalition" inside interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government that he said is obstructing efforts to fund the new Iraqi army and pay pensions to former soldiers.
Other developments
A U.S. cavalry combat brigade is mopping up in the wake of the offensive in Falluja, setting up a cordon around the city and hunting down remaining insurgents. The mission is being undertaken by elements of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, also known as the Black Jack combat team, a storied combat unit that has fought in many American conflicts.
A voice message purportedly from wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Islamist Web sites ridicules Muslim scholars for not strongly condemning the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The voice urges Muslim clerics to wake up and help the resistance, and mocks the manhood of those who don't join the fight. "Instead of implementing God's orders, you chose your safety and preferred your money and sons," said the voice, which could not be independently confirmed as al-Zarqawi's. "Are not your hearts shaken by the scenes of your brothers being surrounded and hurt by your enemy?"
Gunmen killed a bodyguard and driver of a top police official in Baghdad on Wednesday, police said. The attackers, wielding small arms, fired at the car of Col. Ziyaa Hamed, the deputy chief of Baghdad's Major Crime Unit, outside his home. The driver and the bodyguard were waiting in the car. Hamed was inside the home, and was unharmed.
Deputy Gov. Khasro Goran, of Iraq's Nineveh province, said he escaped an assassination attempt Wednesday near the governor's offices in Mosul. Goran said attackers bearing small arms targeted his convoy -- killing a bodyguard and wounding two others -- including his brother.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday there appears to be solid support for the Iraq elections among officials attending an international conference on the Middle East in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The conference has pitted the United States and Britain against France, Germany and Russia. The two sides have been bitterly divided by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and have found themselves airing their differences at the meeting -- primarily behind closed doors. (Full story)
Unidentified gunmen killed Sheikh Ghalib Ali Latif al-Zuheiri, imam of Qibaa mosque north of Baghdad, in the Dhiyaba area of Miqdadiya, Diyala provincial officials said. Al-Zuheiri was a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a group of Sunni clerics that has called for a boycott of the January 30 elections to choose members of a transitional national assembly. It was the second apparent assassination of a Sunni Muslim imam in as many days.
Iraqi Red Crescent Society officials said they planned to visit Falluja on Wednesday to assess humanitarian needs and to coordinate activities. Security concerns have blocked the group from delivering supplies to Falluja since the two-week offensive there began November 7. As major fighting has virtually ended, the interim government has begun delivering relief supplies to the city. |
