BAGHDAD — Iraq has launched its largest counter-insurgency mission
in Baghdad since national elections in January 2005.
About 1,000 Iraq and U.S. troops raided an insurgency-dominated
neighborhood in Baghdad on Monday. The soldiers swept through insurgency
strongholds in the Rashid neighborhood and captured 65 suspected insurgents.
The U.S. military said there were no casualties.
Officials said the force was included 500 Iraqi soldiers and police
officers as well as more than 350 U.S. troops, Middle East Newsline reported. This was the first major
operation of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which assumed
responsibility for Baghdad on Feb. 27.
At the same time, Sunni insurgents renewed strikes on U.S. targets near
the Iraqi border with Syria. On Monday, three suicide car bombers blew
themselves up outside a U.S. military base in Al Qaim in the Anbar province.
Three U.S. Marines were reported to have been injured in the suicide
strikes, one of which included the detonation of a fire truck. Later, a
carload of insurgents opened fire on the U.S. military base Camp Gannon,
prompting the arrival of a U.S. Cobra attack helicopter that destroyed the
vehicle.
On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld began meetings with
Iraqi officials regarding Iraqi military and security deployment. Rumsfeld
said the United States did not want Baghdad to delay plans to expand
security responsibility throughout Iraq. The Pentagon plans to launch the
withdrawal of 140,000 U.S. troops from Iraq in 2006.
"Anything that would delay that or disrupt that as a result of
turbulence or incompetence or corruption in government would be
unfortunate," Rumsfeld said.
