Fallujah, Iraq – U.S. Marines began an sweep Saturday through fertile farmland south of Fallujah in an attempt to disrupt insurgent cells thought to be in the area.
The offensive comes as insurgent attacks appear to be on the rise in the city, once a stronghold for the guerrillas.
In the early morning hours, about 350 Marines from the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion and 100 Iraqi army soldiers rolled into the Zaidan area in armored vehicles. They approached from the eastern edge of the farming region, which lies immediately north of the Euphrates River, and slowly progressed westward.
The area around Zaidan, 20 miles southeast of Fallujah, is laced with irrigation canals that make the terrain treacherous for military vehicles.
“It’ll drive the insurgents away from us,” Lt. Col. Dan Masur, commander of the battalion, said of the sweep. “Understandably, there’s some fear down there. The Iraqis want to help, but they want to know you’ll be down there to support them.”
In Baghdad and cities in the south, the organization of anti- American cleric Muqtada al- Sadr pressed on with a campaign to collect a million signatures for a petition demanding the withdrawal of American-led troops.
The drive began Friday, when clerics led by al-Sadr issued calls for the signatures at mosques in Kufa and Sadr City, both strongholds of the al-Sadr movement.
Television images showed young men lining up in a mosque to sign a white sheet of paper.
Al-Sadr has wide appeal among impoverished Shiite young men, and his militia, the thousands-strong Mahdi Army, can be mobilized instantly at his call.
In recent months, al-Sadr has been trying to elevate his image as an opposition political figure, denouncing the American presence and the Iraqi government. About two dozen of his followers sit in the National Assembly, which is charged with writing a new constitution by Aug. 15.
Iraqi officials continued to grapple Saturday with the fallout from the killing last week of the top Egyptian diplomat and attacks on the envoys from Bahrain and Pakistan.
The Egyptian diplomat, Ihab al-Sherif, 51, was kidnapped and killed by the militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an attempt to drive Muslim envoys from Iraq. On Saturday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry demanded in a statement that the Iraqi government explain why it had suggested that al-Sherif might have been trying to meet with insurgents.
That suggestion was first made Tuesday by Laith Kubba, a spokesman for the Iraqi government.
Kubba said it was odd that al-Sherif had been driving in western Baghdad alone at the time of his abduction and that perhaps al-Sherif had been trying to meet with militants. Kubba repeated the comments Friday.
In its statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry asked whether the Iraqi government was trying to “avoid responsibility” by pinning blame on al-Sherif.