Officials said the operation has sought to remove the insurgency
movement from Ramadi. They said the mission, which included the U.S. 3rd
Infantry Division and Iraqi soldiers and police, began on Monday in downtown
Ramadi, the capital of Anbar.
"This operation will benefit the people of Ramadi by establishing
security and providing basic services and necessities," Col. John Charlton,
commander of the 3rd Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, said. "Al Qaida has
intimidated the people of Ramadi through murder, kidnapping and the
destruction of their city."
[On Tuesday, the U.S. military reported the capture of two Al
Qaida-aligned network commanders, Middle East Newsline reported. The military said Haytham Kazim Abdallah
Al Shimari and Haydar Rashid Nasir Al Shammari Al Jafar, arrested on March
21 in Baghdad, directed the killing of 900 civilians, most of them Shi'ites,
in suicide car bombings over the last four months.
"It is estimated that since November, the car bombs from this cell have
killed approximately 900 innocent Iraqi civilians and another 1,950 have
been wounded," the military said.]
Officials said the raid in Ramadi was the fourth large-scale operation
conducted by Iraqi security and the U.S. military in the city since the 1st
Brigade Combat Team assumed control in mid-February. The combat team has
helped mentor the Iraq Army and police in the city.
Ramadi has been deemed a leading stronghold of Al Qaida. Officials said
the city was part of the Al Qaida rat line in which weapons, money and
insurgents have flowed from Syria to Baghdad.
In another operation, U.S. and Iraqi forces killed five Islamic
insurgents and detained 22 others during the past week. Officials said the
four-day operation near Karma targeted foreign fighter facilitators and Al
Qaida networks.
The joint force was said to have found several weapons caches, including
five DShK anti-aircraft heavy-machine guns, 12 rocket-propelled grenade
launchers, homemade rocket launchers, mortar tubes, 57 mm rockets,
improvised explosive devices, and multiple-wired propane tanks.
On Monday, Iraqi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta reported the
capture of a regional Al Qaida commander, identified as Ahmed Farhan, the
"Al Qaida prince of Abu Gharib," located west of Baghdad. Atta said Farhan
confessed to receiving assistance from Jordan and Syria.
"Farhan, a leader of the terrorist organization in Iraa, admitted his
direct responsibility for killing up to 300 persons and abducting some 200
others, and confessed also of having close ties with a wanted man named Abu
Omar Al Baghdadi," Atta said.
