BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has launched its third major
counter-insurgency operation in western Iraq in about a month.
The U.S. military said more than 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops began
Operation Sword along the Euphrates River in the Anbar province near the
Syrian border. Officials said the operation marked another attempt to halt
the flow of insurgents, financing and supplies from neighboring Syria.
Officials said the operation included 100 Iraqi soldiers, Middle East Newsline reported. They said the
soldiers have been integrated with U.S. Marine and army units.
The operation has focused along an area between the towns of Hit and
Haditha, nearly 200 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. Officials said the U.S.
military has deployed combatants from the 2nd Marine Division.
This was the third major offensive against Sunni insurgents in Anbar in
about a month. The previous missions, which took about a week each, were
dubbed Operations Spear and Dagger.
Operation Spear targeted the area of Al Qaim, regarded as the hub of
foreign fighters who arrive from nearby Syria. Officials said previous
military operations forced the insurgents to transfer their smuggling
activities to other sections of the Iraqi-Syrian border.
The latest operation in Al Anbar was launched as President George Bush
rejected any revision of U.S. strategy in Iraq. Bush, reporting the capture
or killing of hundreds of foreign fighters, said he would not set a deadline
for a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq.
"Our strategy can be summed up this way: As the Iraqis stand up, we will
stand down," Bush said. "Our progress has been uneven, but progress is being
made."
