| The U.S. military has set a new goal in Iraq: to seize control of the western city of Ramadi from Sunni insurgents. U.S. officials said American and Iraqi forces would assault insurgency strongholds in Ramadi, located near the Syrian border. They said the mission would also seek to block the flow of weapons and insurgents from Syria to the Sunni Triangle. "We believe a solution in Ramadi in now obtainable, now that Faluja has been eliminated as a terrorist safe haven," Gen. George Casey, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, said. "The whole Al Anbar province is an area of difficulty for the interim government, and we will work very hard to bring the security situation there to the point where they have election in January." The U.S. operation against Ramadi was expected to be more rapid than the assault on Faluja in November. Officials said the capture of Faluja shattered the headquarters of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq as well as a way-station for Al Qaida-aligned volunteers recruited and trained in Lebanon and Syria. |