Baghdad, Iraq – Iraqi and U.S. troops sweeping through the northern city of Tall Afar on Sunday killed 15 suspected rebels and discovered a bomb factory during the second day of a high-profile counterinsurgency offensive.
About 5,000 Iraqi and 3,500 U.S. soldiers rummaging through the bombed-out mountain city found booby-trapped buildings, underground tunnels and large weapons caches but encountered little fighting during two days of operations. Residents estimated that 90 percent of the city of 200,000 had fled, many to a crowded tent camp.
The joint operation has received heavy coverage on state-controlled Iraqi television. For two days, Al Iraqiya network has shown frequent footage from the scene of Iraqi soldiers kicking in doors as they hunt for rebels in the city, which had been the site of insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces.
In Baghdad, Iraqi officials have given regular updates on the fighting and announced plans to push into other cities along the border with Syria.
The offensive drew fire from some government critics who said such operations served more to exacerbate tensions in the city with a mixed Shiite and Sunni population and divert attention from the government’s failings to rebuild the country than to defeat the insurgency.
“What is going on there is nothing but a sectarian purge within an official cover,” Adnan Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab leader, told reporters. “This kind of policy would bring nothing but more bloodshed, more chaos and more destruction to Iraq.”
But in a televised news conference Sunday, Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi praised the offensive and the Iraqi troops.
“What is happening in Tall Afar is an example of what should happen in other troubled places of Iraq,” said Dulaimi, a descendant of the same large Iraqi tribe as Adnan Dulaimi.
The government’s upbeat assessments were reflected in the footage on state-controlled television.
Iraqis often criticize the nascent armed forces for firing their weapons wildly into the air. But Sunday night, Al Iraqiya showed Iraqi soldiers in desert camouflage uniforms alertly marching through deserted Tall Afar neighborhoods and calmly guarding a group of about 20 bound, blindfolded and seated suspected insurgents.
