Baghdad, Iraq – About 10,000 U.S. soldiers launched an offensive against al-Qaeda in Iraq northeast of Baghdad early Tuesday, killing at least 22 insurgents,the U.S. military said.
The raids, dubbed “Operation Arrowhead Ripper,” took place in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, and involved air assaults under the cover of darkness, the military said in a statement. The operation was still in its opening stages, it said.
Monday, military officials said U.S. and Iraqi forces had launched attacks on Baghdad’s northern and southern flanks to clear out Sunni insurgents, al-Qaeda fighters and Shiite militia who had fled the capital and Anbar during a security operation.
A top U.S. military official said American forces were taking advantage of the arrival of the final brigade of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to open concerted attacks.
“We are going into the areas that have been sanctuaries of al-Qaeda and other extremists to take them on and weed them out, to help get the areas clear and to really take on al-Qaeda,” the senior official said on condition of anonymity. “Those are areas in the belts around Baghdad, some parts in Anbar province and specifically Diyala province.”
A shifty combatant
Al-Qaeda has proved an extremely agile foe for U.S. and Iraqi forces, as shown by its ability to transfer major operations to Diyala’s provincial capital of Baqubah from Anbar province, the sprawling desert region in western Iraq. There is no guarantee that driving the organization out of current sanctuaries will prevent it from migrating to other regions.
The death toll in sectarian violence Monday skyrocketed after a brief period of relative peace. At least 111 people were killed or found dead nationwide, with 33 bodies of torture victims found in Baghdad alone.
Well to the south, Iraqi officials reported as many as 36 people were killed in fierce overnight fighting that began as British and Iraqi forces conducted house-to-house searches in Amarah, a stronghold of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia.
Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, is a tangle of Shiite and Sunni villages that has played into the hands of al-Qaeda and allied militants.
Making new enemies
Al-Qaeda has conducted public executions in the Baqubah main square and otherwise sought to enforce an extreme Taliban-style Islamic code. The terrorist organization’s actions in the province have caused some Sunni militants, al-Qaeda’s natural allies, to turn their guns on the group with American assistance and blessing.
Some militant Shiites are likewise joining government forces in a bid to oust the foreign fighters and Muslim extremists.
Some Sunni tribes, which had fought with or offered sanctuary to al-Qaeda in Anbar province, have risen up against the group and are now receiving arms and training from U.S. forces. Americans are trying to spread that alliance to al-Qaeda areas now under attack.
Elsewhere in Iraq, CBS News reported Monday that U.S. soldiers last week discovered two dozen emaciated boys at a government-run orphanage for special-needs children in central Baghdad – some tied to cribs and covered in their own feces. Soldiers said they found shelves filled with food and new clothes in the facility, according to the report.
The caretaker of the orphanage and two female employees have disappeared, CBS reported. The children were all moved to another orphanage in the city, the report said.
