BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has launched another counter-insurgency offensive near the
Syrian border after losing more than 40 soldiers over the
last two weeks.
Officials said the U.S. military and Iraq Army embarked on Operation
Quick Strike over the weekend in the Anbar province near the Syrian border, Middle East Newsline reported.
Despite the spike in U.S. casualties, the military has maintained that
Al Qaida network's in Iraq was being eroded. The military released a
letter said to have been written by an operative to Al Qaida network leader
Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi that reported the deterioration of the insurgency
leadership in Mosul.
The letter, written by somebody identified only as Abu Zayd, reported
that the Al Qaida command in Mosul was untrained, incompetent and
uncooperative. The letter, which also complained of wasting money on cars
and phones, was found during a raid of a suspected Al Qaida safe house in
Mosul on July 27.
"[There is a] lack of diversity in the attacks and the unwillingness to
pursue the centers and headquarters, especially when they are easy targets,
and being content with sending suicide bombers after armored vehicles," the
letter said.
The officials said the operation consisted of about 1,000 U.S. Marines and Iraqi
soldiers in the area of Haditha, regarded as one of the key Sunni
insurgency strongholds in Iraq.
Operation Quick Strike has focused on Haditha, Haqliniyah and Barwanah
in the Sunni Triangle. Haditha was where dozens of Marines were killed
in a series of insurgency bombings and ambushes over the last two weeks. In
one insurgency strike, 14 Marines
were killed in a blast that destroyed an armored amphibious assault vehicle.
On Sunday, two U.S. soldiers were killed and another was injured in an
insurgency bombing near an army convoy in Samara. Earlier, the military
reported finding three vehicles packed with explosives in the Haditha
region. A military spokesman said the car bombs were safely detonated by
army sappers.
Quick Strike was the fourth major counter-insurgency operation in the
Sunni Triangle since June. In each of the operations, the military reported
initial successes followed by mass-casualty insurgency strikes, usually in
the Baghdad area.
Officials said the Defense Department has deemed the detection and
neutralizing of car and roadside bombs a priority. They said acting
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has expanded the powers of a
Pentagon panel meant to offer technological solutions to improvised
explosive devices. The move empowered the panel to immediately
approve procurement of up to $25 million.
Since June 2005, about two-thirds of U.S. military casualties in Iraq
were the result of IEDs. In July, that percentage rose by as much as 80
percent, officials said. Last month, 54 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.
Officials said insurgents have assembled a bomb with a steel plate meant
to direct the explosion upwards into the targeted vehicle. Insurgents have
also designed a bomb that fired a steel projectile through the armor of the
belly of a targeted U.S. armored vehicle.
Many of these bombs have been assembled in Iran and smuggled into Iraq,
officials said. They said the bombs were similar to those used by the
Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah in Lebanon.
