U.S. launches new offensive in Diayala with air assault; 16,000 troops take part in 'Operation Lightning Hammer'

Above: Scenes from 'Operation Arrowhead Ripper' which targetted the same area six weeks ago. 'Former insurgents' deputized by the U.S. were used in the offensive to 'clear' neighborhoods. But U.S. generals said afterwards that there weren't enough Iraqi security forces to hold the gains made. And as a result of military activity there, many Iraqis in the area now depend on the U.S. for food and water.

16,000 troops lead Diyala crackdown

About 16,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops began a new operation north of Baghdad targeting insurgents who have fled a crackdown in the restive city of Baqubah, the military said Tuesday...

Operation Lightning Hammer, which began late Monday with an air assault, was part of a broader U.S. push announced Monday to build on successes in Baghdad and surrounding areas by targeting al-Qaida in Iraq and Iranian-allied Shiite militia fighters nationwide.

Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said the troops were pursuing al-Qaida cells that had been disrupted and forced into hiding by previous operations.

"Our main goal with Lightning Hammer is to eliminate the terrorist organizations ... and show them that they truly have no safe haven -- especially in Diyala," Major-General Benjamin Mixon, U.S. commander in northern Iraq, said in a statement.

Read the rest at Army Times

U.S. troops launch new Iraq offensive

U.S. forces launched a big offensive in Iraq with an overnight airborne assault targeting al Qaeda guerrillas on Tuesday, part of a major new countrywide push...

U.S. and Iraqi soldiers started the operation with a late-night air assault. Its focus was militants who fled an earlier crackdown in the provincial capital Baquba...

The operation was described as part of a larger countrywide Operation Phantom Strike, which U.S. forces announced on Monday.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said U.S. forces would launch a series of operations over the next 30 days.

"We fully expect that al Qaeda in Iraq would like to increase their attacks during this critical period," he told reporters in Washington.

Read the rest at Reuters

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