Battle for Baghdad: US and Iraq plan street by street offensive

[ECH1969]

Faced with a make or break struggle to wrest control of Baghdad from insurgents and sectarian death squads, US and Iraqi commanders plan an ambitious strategy to take back the Iraqi capital street by street, district by district.

Thousands of reinforcements have been drafted in to flashpoint areas like Dura in the south of the city -- until recently a scene of bloody clashes and civilian massacres -- and are setting up cordons around entire neighbourhoods, before proceeding to disarm the gangs through house to house searches.

"So far, we've had some effect. Obviously during the last three days while we've had 5,000 soldiers involved in this operation, we have had no murders. These are the same neighbourhoods where on the worst day we've had over 20 murders," said Colonel Michael Beech, who leads the US 4th Infantry Brigade.

The searches, he said, led to 38 arrests, including those of three "foreign fighters". More than 20 illegal weapons -- including machine guns and a rocket launcher -- were seized, along with explosives and CD video disks extolling the Sunni extremist Osama bin Laden or the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060811/wl_mideast_afp/iraqusunrest

[0007]

1. Turning the corner, 'eh?

[ixion]

2. a "street by street offensive" is EXACTLY what was predicted

way before this tragic mess started.

The notion was met with nothing but contempt and derision from the WH and the GOP.

And yet here we are, going street by street, killing innocent civillians and insurgents.

This is precisely why invading was a catastrophically stupid thing to do.

[Moderator]

3. duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2449267