U.S. says taking 'aggressive' approach in Anbar

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Eduardo Vazquez, left, of Rome, New York, and Cpl. Tyler Warndorf, of Hebron, Kentucky, rest in an Iraqi family's house during a patrol, in Ramadi, on June 26. Cpl. Warndorf was slain in late August. Ramadi has been the site of at least 2 major military operations to battle the insurgency since 2004.

BAGHDAD, Oct 26 (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi security forces in the restive western province of Anbar are taking "an aggressive, offensive approach" to reclaim the city of Ramadi from insurgents, a senior U.S. general said on Thursday.

Major General William Caldwell, countering an impression that U.S. commanders had all but given up on tackling the violence in Anbar, said U.S. and Iraqi forces were making progress against the insurgents.

Asked whether five more U.S. deaths in Anbar announced on Thursday were a sign of a new outbreak of violence, Caldwell said they were linked to a deliberate policy by Iraqi and U.S. forces to take on "insurgent elements".

"They're continuing to have progress. They, in coordination with Iraq security forces, are in a daily conflict with the insurgent elements out there," he told a news conference in Baghdad.

"It's been a very deliberate plan that's been ongoing now for several months," he said. "It's an aggressive, offensive approach to taking back the city of Ramadi, to return it back to Iraqi security force control."

Last month Marine Major General Richard Zilmer, top commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq, said the mission in the sprawling Sunni province of Anbar was to train Iraqi security forces, not "to win that insurgency fight."

A recent transfer of troops to Baghdad to crack down on violence in the capital has reinforced the impression that U.S. commanders no longer saw confronting the Anbar insurgents as a top priority.

Last week dozens of al Qaeda-linked gunmen took to the streets of Ramadi in a show of force to announce the city was joining an Islamic state comprising Iraq's mostly Sunni Arab provinces, Islamists and witnesses said.

Anbar province, much of it a desert no-man's land, encompasses a third of Iraq including the restive cities of Ramadi, Falluja and Haditha.

It has been a bloody battleground for Marines and other U.S. troops. A U.S. sailor and four U.S. Marines were killed by enemy action in Anbar on Wednesday, the military said on Thursday.

Read the rest at Reuters/Alternet

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