Operation leads to highway’s reopening

[unhappycamper]

Operation leads to highway’s reopening
By Drew Brown, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, January 31, 2008

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq — An operation led by Iraqi forces and supported by American troops has reopened the main highway linking Baghdad and Diyala province after 16 months in insurgent hands, U.S. and Iraqi military officers said.

About 600 Iraqi soldiers and 200 U.S. troops took part in Operation Blackhawk Harvest, which reopened Route 5, the main road between Baghdad and the Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba, said Lt. Col. Marshall Dougherty, commander of 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, and Gen. Rasheed Abed al Kareem, executive officer for the 5th Iraqi Army Division, in a news conference here late Tuesday.

The operation focused on a section of the highway between Baghdad and Khan Bani Saad, about halfway between the Iraqi capital and Baqouba. Insurgents had controlled this stretch of the highway for the past 16 months, according to Dougherty and Rasheed.

While relatively modest in scale, the sweep is significant. It’s the kind of operation that Iraqi forces will have to do more often if they are to take over the primary security role in areas vacated by U.S. troops as they start to withdraw in the wake of last year’s “surge.”

Rasheed said 48 insurgents were killed during the sweep, mostly by U.S. airstrikes, which began Jan. 14 and ended Monday. Eight other insurgents were arrested, according to the Iraqi general.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52068