BAGHDAD — The U.S. military is conducting its its fourth
counter-insurgency offensive in Iraq's Sunni Triangle in about a month.
Officials said the latest offensive, entitled Operation Scimitar, began
on July 7 in the Anbar province near Faluja, Middle East Newsline reported. They said the operation focused
on an area of the Euphrates Valley southeast of Faluja and deemed a major
insurgency stronghold.
Operation Scitimar involves about 600 U.S. Marines and
Iraqi soldiers, the military said. The contingent includes 500 Marines from
the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, Regimental Combat Team-8.
Officials said all four operations were meant to disrupt the insurgency
supply route that begins in Syria and extends to such Iraqi cities as Mosul
and Baghdad. The supply route was meant to ensure the transport of cars,
bombs, insurgents and funds from Syria.
Previous operations usually contained about 1,000 or more troops and
focused on insurgency strongholds near the Syrian border. Operation Spear,
which took place in mid-June, sought to destroy the insurgency way-station
at Karabilah near the Syrian border.
The military said Operation Scitimar has so far resulted in the capture
of 22 suspected insurgents in Zaidon, about 30 kilometers southeast of
Faluja. Officials said the coalition would seek to rid the Euphrates Valley
of insurgents.
"There are some more threats ahead," U.S. Maj. Gen. William Webster,
commander of the 45,000-member Task Force Baghdad, said. "I do believe,
however, that the ability of these insurgents to conduct sustained
high-intensity operations, as they did last year. We've mostly eliminated
that."
Webster said the weekly number of vehicle-borne improvised explosive
devices attacks in Baghdad has been reduced by 50 percent since May 2005. He
said thousands of suspects, including 51 foreign fighters, have been
captured.
"I don't think we can say this is a permanent solution, but I would say
in the next couple of months we will not see sustained, long, bloody months
in Baghdad," Webster said in a briefing to Pentagon reporters.
