EFL:
Multinational troops have arrested 210 suspected militants in a weeklong crackdown against insurgents in an area south of Baghdad known as the "triangle of death," the U.S. military command said Wednesday.On Wednesday, the military said in a statement that Iraqi government forces and U.S. Marines rounded up 15 new suspects during operations on Tuesday, bringing the total to 210. A militant was killed when a mortar round he was planting near a busy road in the area exploded prematurely, it said. The operation, codenamed Plymouth Rock, was launched in part as a follow-up to last month's assault on Fallujah, the main insurgent bastion 40 miles west of Baghdad. U.S. commanders want to cut off escape routes for Fallujah fighters and pacify the troubled region ahead of national elections in January. Separately, U.S. troops detained 17 suspected militants during a series of raids on Tuesday in and around Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city. |