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Terror Networks

Iraq Forces Retake Last IS-Held Town in Country

2017-11-18

[AnNahar] The Iraqi army retook the last town in the country still held by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group on Friday as the jihadists' self-proclaimed "caliphate" faced collapse on both sides of the border with Syria. The lightning recapture of the small Euphrates valley town of Rawa in an offensive launched at dawn came as the jihadists were also under attack for a second day in the last town they still hold in Syria, Albu Kamal just over the frontier. The Islamic State group (IS) has lost 95 percent of the cross-border "caliphate" it declared in Iraq and Syria in 2014, the U.S.-led coalition fighting it said on Wednesday. Its losses include all of its major bastions, virtually confining it to pockets of countryside. Government troops and paramilitary units "liberated the whole of Rawa and raised the Iraqi flag on all of its official buildings," General Abdelamir Yarallah of Iraq's Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi hailed the town's "liberation in record time" and said troops would now "conduct search operations in the desert to secure the border with Syria." "Militarily, IS has been defeated but we are going to hunt down its remnants to eradicate its presence," said JOC front man General Yahya Rassoul. Iraqi IS specialist Hisham al-Hashemi said that after their loss of Rawa, the jihadists no longer exercised any real military or administrative power. "What has been liberated are the populated areas with demarcated boundaries," Hashemi said. "But the seasonal river valleys, the oases, the empty expanses of desert which make up around four percent of Iraqi territory are still in the hands of IS." Rawa was bypassed in an offensive by the Iraqi army that resulted in the recapture of the strategically important border town of al-Qaim earlier this month. The stretch of Euphrates valley abutting the border with Syria has long been a bastion of Sunni Arab insurgency, first against U.S.-led troops after the invasion of 2003 and then against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. The porous frontier became a magnet for imported muscle entering Iraq from Syria, which Baghdad accused of turning a blind eye, and a key smuggling route for arms and illicit goods. U.S.-led troops carried out repeated operations with code names like Matador and Steel Curtain in 2005 to flush out al-Qaeda jihadists. The region swiftly fell to IS when its fighters swept through the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in 2014 before proclaiming its "caliphate." - 'Days now numbered' - The jihadists once controlled a territory the size of Britannia but they have successively lost all their key strongholds, including Raqa in Syria and djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in Iraq. "The days of the fake caliphate are now numbered," the U.S. envoy to the coalition Brett McGurk tweeted on Friday. Over the border in Syria, IS still holds around 25 percent of the countryside of Deir Ezzor province but is under attack not only by government forces but also by U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters. In the border town of Albu Kamal, the Syrian army was battling IS fighters who mounted a surprise counterattack last week, pushing out government forces who had retaken it last month. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based monitor of the war, said the new army offensive had successfully penetrated the town, with troops backed by Russian air strikes advancing from the west, east and south.

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Home Front: WoT

Medals bestowed on 5 from Pendleton for valor in Iraq firefight

2009-01-09

A battle few outside the Marine Corps had ever heard of was recognized yesterday when four Marines and a sailor received prestigious medals at Camp Pendleton. The Corps awarded one Navy Cross and four Silver Stars for valor shown during a firefight between Camp Pendleton troops and insurgents in Iraq. The Navy Cross is the second-highest honor for heroism, while the Silver Star ranks one notch below it. Five Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment died in the Nov. 16, 2005, battle, and 11 others were wounded. Eighteen insurgents were killed during the fight. "I thought it was totally one of the most heroic acts of bravery that I've ever witnessed or been a part of," said Col. Robert Oltman, the unit's battalion commander at the time and now a staff officer at the Pentagon. "It was nothing short of amazing." The battalion had arrived in Iraq a month earlier and had seen little combat before Operation Steel Curtain, a U.S.-Iraqi campaign to root out insurgents operating in the Euphrates River Valley. On that November day, insurgents ambushed the Marines in New Ubaydi by creating a killing zone around what Marine commanders called Building 6, or what the rank and file referred to as "the death house." Former Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Jesse Hickey recalled seeing bullets hitting all around him as Marines ran for cover. As the first corpsman to reach the ambush site, he raced to rescue wounded men. Under normal circumstances, the Marines would have pulled back and called in air power to destroy the building. But with wounded Marines in the house, that wasn't an option. Hickey treated and evacuated several Marines, even though shrapnel hit parts of his body and he could no longer use one of his arms. "I remember being scared, but I was scared of not being able to help those guys," Hickey said yesterday. "I never thought about what might happen to me, only of failing my Marines. When I think back about it, I wish I could've done more." Also working to save Marines and kill the enemy during the battle were Gunnery Sgt. Robert Homer, Lance Cpl. Joshua Mooi, Cpl. Javier Alvarez and 2nd Lt. Donald McGlothlin. At one point, Alvarez snatched an insurgent's grenade that landed in the middle of some Marines. It exploded, blowing his hand off, but he kept fighting. Hickey, Homer and Alvarez received the Silver Star during yesterday's medals ceremony. The Silver Star for McGlothlin, who died in the battle, was awarded posthumously. The Marine Corps bestowed the Navy Cross on Mooi, who is credited with making six trips into the ambush zone to rescue Marines or fight the insurgents. Mooi left the house only after bullets destroyed his M-16 rifle. Hundreds of Marines assembled on a hilltop for the awards program. "The medal itself, it's one of those symbols that feels like it should take a lot of weight off. . . . It puts some things to rest," Mooi said. "But I think at the same time, it puts a lot of weight back on because now I have something that other Marines are supposed to look up to and aspire to." An emotional moment came when McGlothlin's parents accepted his Silver Star. Donald McGlothlin said his son overcame childhood respiratory problems to graduate first in his class at the Marine Corps' officer basic school. "He was the honor grad in his class and could have had any job he wanted," his father recalled. "He said: 'Dad, I want to be an infantry officer. There's never been a Marine commandant who hasn't been an infantry officer.' He always knew how to make me smile." Of the surviving medal recipients, only Homer is still in the service. He is an instructor at Camp Pendleton's School of Infantry. God bless each and every one

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Iraq

Operation Moonlight Begins

2005-12-19

AR RAMADI, Iraq – Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division began Operation Alkamra Almaner (Moonlight) early this morning in western Al Anbar. Iraqi Army soldiers from three Iraqi battalions are conducting a cordon and knock operation east of Ubaydi. The Iraqi soldiers are being supported by 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, Regimental Combat Team-2 and 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward). This is the first large-scale operation planned and executed by Iraqi soldiers of the 1st Brigade. The operation objective of Moonlight is to disrupt insurgent activity along the northern and southern banks of the Euphrates River near Ubaydi. The eastern Al Qa'im region, to include the cities of Husaybah, Karabilah and Ubaydi were cleared of al Qaeda in Iraq-led insurgents during Operation Steel Curtain last month which enabled residents to vote in the Dec. 15 Iraqi National Elections. Note this is a brigade-level operation, a rarity in the whole region where the standard is batallion-level ops.

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Iraq

Where's the Boom-Boom?

2005-11-21

"Get back, get back!" shouted Cpl. Sean Thompson after poking at the suspicious mound of rocks during a marine patrol to look for insurgents' improvised explosive devices. "Daisy chain, daisy chain here, don't nobody go off the road!" Thanks to the corporal from Seminole, Fla., the "daisy chain," explosives linked together, never went off. But they illustrate the difficulty of keeping insurgents permanently out of New Obeidi and the other towns in Anbar Province, along the Syrian border. Marines of the 3rd Battalion of the 6th Regiment have fought to wrest control of these towns from insurgents over the past three weeks in Operation Steel Curtain. This region of Iraq is home to supply lines, incoming foreign fighters, and insurgent bases. Throughout Steel Curtain, insurgents have typically resisted then melted away rather than confront the Marines' fire power. At least 11 marines have been killed since the operation began. More than 100 insurgents have been killed and several hundred have been arrested. After the bullets Resting in the bend of the Euphrates River, New Obeidi, located next to Obeidi, is a microcosm of the challenges and pitfalls of the broader fight against insurgents. It was the last city taken by the marines in Steel Curtain. Fighting ended last Thursday, and the battle has turned to ensuring that insurgents don't return. A day after the bullets stopped flying here, marines began 24-hour foot patrols through the streets. Residents come forward to point out weapon stockpiles by day while insurgents plant IEDs by night. Children wave and some men shake hands with the marines. Others hang back offering only hard stares. "These guys smile and shake your hand today, but you kill one of their brethren ... you make your own enemies if you're not careful," says Sgt. Antonio Farmer, of Wilson, N.C., as he walks through a dusty field. "It's hard to know when to turn it on and to turn it off, the aggression." The scars of the battle are all around him and makeshift white flags fly from rooftops, car windows, and residents' hands as they walk the streets. As the patrol makes it way through the grid of streets in this community that was planned around a fertilizerfactory, residents emerge to watch, and children cautiously test the playfulness of the marines. The marines have been told by their commanders that a positive climate here is essential to keep insurgents away. One marine approaches a man standing alone and offers a handshake, but the man pulls his hand away, offering instead a stern nod of acknowledgement. At the next house a group of men and boys wave. "Good, good!" they shout. "The situation is very miserable. All the people in this city spent [three or four nights] outside the city," says Abu Abdullah, a political science professor, in rusty English. He refuses to give his full name. "All this destruction and death came under the slogan of democracy. Is this democracy? Is this a civilization? Is this freedom?" But on the same street where Abdullah stands, three men are trying to get the marines' attention to show them where two IEDs were hidden in the garden of a home. "I'd hate to shoot one of these kids in the head.... You do what you can because the enemy blends in. [It's a case of] 'no better friend and no better enemy,' because you never really know who" you are dealing with, Farmer says. The majority of the people on the street just want to know if the Marines will compensate them for their damaged homes and cars. So many have questions that it takes two hours for the marines to walk just a few blocks. "We want to have a good relationship with them [so] that if we see anything they will tell us. The only way to have that is to get their trust, and the only way to do that is [reconstruction]," says Sgt. Ryan Ashabranner, of Cypress, Texas, on a different patrol. During these first patrols around the city following the fighting, the marines are charged with the painstaking work of sweeping each street for IEDs in the road and weapons left behind by insurgents. The rebuilding and humanitarian work will be done by other marines who are just setting up such programs. But without an interpreter and few answers to questions, marines like Farmer and Ashabranner are left to hand gestures and whatever English the residents may know to communicate. Where's the 'boom boom'? "Boom? Boom?" they often ask while making an explosion gesture with their hands to ask residents if they know where any weapons or IEDs are. Many of the marines in the 3rd Battalion of the 6th Regiment are familiar with this side of fighting the insurgency. Roughly half of them served in Afghanistan. "We know you have to get out and in touch with the people. Just driving by, everyone waves, but that doesn't do anything. Being in Afghanistan they learned they had to get out and interact with the people. It's the only way this thing is going to get won," says Capt. Clinton Culp of Amarillo, Texas, the commander of the weapons company that is overseeing the New Obeidi area. That presence pays dividends. After walking the street for a few days, Farmer judges the remaining insurgent influence by the way the children react to them on a given street. "Some places the kids will play with you, make fun of you 'big bad American soldiers.' But go to other places and it's different. They shy away from you," says Farmer. "Atmospherics are going to be a big part of success in this town." EP

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Iraq

The brave sheep of Islam

2005-11-16

Hat tip: the Fourth Rail US and Iraqi forces fighting terrorists insurgents near the Syrian border encountered fierce resistance on Tuesday, with troops encountering 107 explosive booby traps and killing at least 30 terrorists insurgents, a military statement said. The US command said on Tuesday that three US Marines have died in combat RIP, brave warriors. while trying to clear the town of Obeidi as part of Operation Steel Curtain since Monday. At least 80 terrorists insurgents have been killed, mostly in air strikes, in the same period, the statement said. “Iraqi and coalition forces continue to clear the city house-by-house, occasionally encountering buildings that are rigged with explosives and triggered to detonate upon entering the building,” the statement said. “Numerous weapons caches have also been seized, to include several that contained suicide vests and bomb making material.” The US-Iraqi attack on Obeidi was the latest stage of an offensive to clear Al-Qaeda-led terrorists insurgents from a string of towns and cities in the Euphrates River valley near the border with Syria and seal off a major infiltration route for foreign terrorists fighters sneaking into Iraq. “Intelligence reports indicate that the strong resistance to the Iraqi and Coalition push into the city is due in large part to the fact that terrorists insurgents believe they are trapped and have nowhere else to go,” Cue the nanoviolin. the military report said. “Several detainees were captured trying to sneak out of the area by crawling among a flock of sheep.” Though why they had their pants around their ankles...

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Iraq

Operation Steel Curtain kills 50 near Syrian border

2005-11-15

Update on story posted yesterday by ed. EFL U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a dawn assault Monday on another town near the Syrian border and killed 50 terrorists insurgents, a U.S. statement said, while the interior ministry reported that a car bomb detonated outside a gate leading into the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, killing two South Africans. Operation Steel Curtain entered a new phase when U.S. and Iraqi forces moved into the Euphrates River valley town of Obeidi, about 185 miles west of Baghdad. Troops had successfully cleared the old part of the town and were now moving into the other half, the statement said. "Approximately 50 terrorists insurgents are estimated to have been killed in sporadic but heavy fighting. The combined force of Iraqi army and coalition forces has encountered at least six mines and improvised bomb," the statement said. "A suspected car bomb placed in the advance of Iraqi Forces was engaged with a round from an M1A1 tank. The blast from the tank initiated a secondary explosion powerful enough to throw the car onto the roof of a nearby building," it added The troops assigned to the 2nd Marine Division have already fought their way through two neighboring towns, Husaybah and Karabilah. U.S. forces believe the border towns have been an entry point for terrorists insurgent fighters and weapons into Iraq. U.S. commanders have said offensives, especially those in the western province of Anbar near the Syrian border, are aimed at encouraging Sunni Arabs to vote in the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections without fear of intimidation by insurgents opposed to the political process. However, several major Sunni Arab political groups insisted Sunday that such operations risk keeping Sunni turnout low because civilians are displaced by the fighting or they will be too frightened to venture out to the polls. Some alleged the Shiite-led government was intentionally carrying out operations northeast of Baghdad to discourage Sunni Arabs from voting — a charge that Iraqi officials have denied. "We strongly condemn the military operations and demand that they are halted immediately," Saleh al-Mutlaq of the Sunni National Dialogue Front told reporters. "We demand that the United Nations, the Arab League and humanitarian organizations stop these massacres." Ayad al-Izi, a member of the largest Sunni Arab party, charged that raids by the Interior Ministry in religiously mixed Diyala province were politically motivated to cow Sunnis. "Such practices are aimed at foiling the political process in the country and they ignite the strife in such areas," said al-Izi of the Iraqi Islamic Party.

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Iraq

U.S. Operation Near Syria Kills 37

2005-11-15

U.S. and Iraqi troops trying to stem the flow of insurgent fighters across the Syrian border launched a dawn assault Monday on another border town, killing a reported 37 insurgents. Operation Steel Curtain entered a new phase Monday when U.S. and Iraqi forces moved into the Euphrates River valley town of Obeidi, 185 miles west of Baghdad. "Five targets were struck by coalition air strikes resulting in an estimated 37 insurgents killed. The insurgents were engaging coalition forces with small arms fire at the time of the strikes," a U.S. military statement said. "Preliminary reports indicate an estimated 25 insurgents have already been captured and are currently detained." The troops assigned to the 2nd Marine Division have already fought their way through two neighboring towns, Husaybah and Karabilah. U.S. forces believe the border towns have been an entry point for insurgent fighters and weapons into Iraq.

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Iraq

U.S., Iraqi Troops Kill 37 Insurgents

2005-11-14

U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a dawn assault Monday on another town near the Syrian border and killed 37 insurgents, a U.S. statement said, while the interior ministry reported that a car bomb detonated outside a gate leading into the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, killing three foreigners. Operation Steel Curtain entered a new phase when U.S. and Iraqi forces moved into the Euphrates River valley town of Obeidi, about 185 miles west of Baghdad. "Five targets were struck by coalition air strikes resulting in an estimated 37 insurgents killed. The insurgents were engaging coalition forces with small arms fire at the time of the strikes," the statement said. "Preliminary reports indicate an estimated 25 insurgents have already been captured and are currently detained." The troops assigned to the 2nd Marine Division have already fought their way through two neighboring towns, Husaybah and Karabilah. U.S. forces believe the border towns have been an entry point for insurgent fighters and weapons into Iraq. The explosion in Baghdad killed two South Africans and wounded three others working for a U.S. State Department security contractor DynCorp International, U.S. embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton said. The blast was followed by small arms fire and billowing black smoke that could be seen across the city. The blast apparently targeted a convoy of sport utility vehicles leaving the Green Zone, the headquarters of the Iraqi government and U.S. forces in Iraq. The blast occurred near the Iranian embassy, about 100 meters (yards) north of the Green Zone gate, which is surrounded with blast walls. Two Apache attack helicopters were soon flying over the scene as the smoke cleared and sporadic gunfire continued in the area. On most days in Baghdad at least one car bomb detonates in the city, mostly targeting Iraqi security services or U.S. troops. Direct attacks on the Green Zone are relatively rare. In the western town of Ramadi, a Sunni stronghold, a road-side bomb detonated shortly after a U.S. patrol passed by, destroying two buses and killing five civilians and wounding 20 others, police Capt. Nassir Al-Alousi said. Rest at link.

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Iraq

US army announces completion of Steel Curtain

2005-11-10

US army announced on Wednesday completion of Steel Curtain operations, which aimed to eradicate insurgency in Husaiba city with the assistance of Iraqi security forces. Multinational Forces (MNF) said today in a statement that the forces which participated in the operations would remain patrolling the city to enforce security along the Iraqi-Syrian borders. The statement revealed that Iraqi and American soldiers would continue their hunt for weapons and booby trapped cars in the Husaiba, which was evacuated by hundreds of families during the last five days because of the heated military operations. The US army announced previously arresting 180 gunmen in Husaiba, including foreign gunmen from Asian and African countries.

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Iraq

Steel Curtain Yields 'Substantial' Weapons Caches

2005-11-09

Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines have found numerous weapons caches - 17 of which were "substantial in size" -- during the four days of Operation Steel Curtain in Iraq's Anbar province, military officials reported today. Weapons, munitions and bomb-making material for the construction of roadside and car bombs have been some of the more commonly found items at the cache sites, officials said. One cache discovered in central Husaybah today consisted of large amounts of medical supplies and rocket-propelled grenades and launchers. Also, on the southern outskirts of the Iraqi-Syrian border town today, Marines discovered a corpse of a man who had been bound, gagged and shot through the head. The identity of the man is unknown, officials said. Iraqi scout platoons assigned to the combat units clearing the city, known as Desert Protectors, continue to assist both Iraqi and U.S. forces, officials said. Their familiarity with the region, local tribes and dialects allows these scouts to pick out suspicious individuals for further questioning, officials explained. Coalition forces have detained about 180 men for questioning about suspected ties to the insurgency since Steel Curtain began on Nov. 5. (From a Multinational Force Iraq news release.)

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Iraq

7 Iraqis dead in Baquba bombing

2005-11-09

Seven Iraqis were killed and four others injured Wednesday when a suicide car bomb exploded in Baquba, north of Baghdad. Four police officers were among the dead in a bombing apparently targeting an Iraqi police patrol in the city, located about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of the capital. Baquba often has been the scene of sectarian violence and attacks on Iraqi security forces. In other deadly violence Wednesday, a driver for an Education Ministry official was gunned down in Baghdad's Shula neighborhood, Iraqi police said. A Sudanese administrative attaché for the Sudanese Embassy also was shot dead while driving his car Wednesday morning in Baghdad, Iraqi emergency police said. Earlier Wednesday, a U.S.-led airstrike in western Iraq destroyed what was believed to be an al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist weapons cache in a village near Qaim along the Syrian border, the military said. Also Wednesday, a U.S. Marine died from wounds he received earlier this week in a roadside bomb attack in Anbar province west of Baghdad, a military statement said. Meanwhile, Operation Steel Curtain, the latest in a series of U.S.-led offensives in northwest Iraq, a region that borders with Syria, enters its fifth day. On Tuesday, the U.S. military said it uncovered a bomb-making factory and a weapons store in an attempt to wrest control of the town of Husayba from insurgents. U.S. commanders say the Syrian border region has been used by foreign fighters heading to Iraq and smuggling in weapons and add that insurgents have taken over Husayba and are using it as a command center. With about 3,000 U.S. personnel and 550 Iraqi soldiers, the operation is one of the largest since last year's battle to retake Falluja from insurgents. An Iraqi garrison will remain in the area to prevent the return of insurgents, as has happened after previous operations. As of Tuesday, one Marine and 36 insurgents had been reported killed in the fighting. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, the discredited former exile leader, is scheduled to meet Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington. Chalabi also will speak to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank that backed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and meet with Treasury Secretary John Snow during his visit to the United States. Chalabi, a Pentagon favorite before the war, fell from favor with the Bush administration in 2004 when U.S. intelligence officials accused him of leaking information to Iran. He has denied any wrongdoing, but U.S. officials said that an FBI probe into those allegations remains unresolved. A day after a lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants was killed, the chief attorney for the ex-Iraqi dictator said counsel for Hussein and his seven co-defendants would sever dealings with the tribunal in the first trial of alleged crimes against humanity by the former regime, Reuters reported. The next hearing is set for November 28, but Khalil al-Dulaimi told Reuters that defense attorneys are not able to work because of threats to their lives. Gunmen shot and killed Adil Muhammed al-Zubaidi, a lawyer for ex-Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, while he was driving Tuesday in Baghdad, Iraqi police said. Al-Zubaidi was the second lawyer involved in the trial to be assassinated within the past month. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend for another year the U.N. authorization of U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq, which number about 180,000. The present mandate expires December 31. The adoption extends the multinational force's presence until December 31, 2006, but it will be reviewed in six months.

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Iraq

US, Iraqi troops storm town along Syrian border

2005-11-09

U.S. and Iraqi troops battled insurgents house-to-house on Monday, the third day of a major offensive against al-Qaeda insurgents in a town near the Syrian border, and the U.S. command reported the first American death in the operation. The U.S. commander of the joint force, Col. Stephen W. Davis, told The Associated Press late Sunday that his troops had moved "about halfway" through Husaybah, a market town along the Euphrates River about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad. At least 36 insurgents have been killed since the assault began Saturday, and about 200 men have been detained, Davis said. He did not give a breakdown of nationalities of the detainees. Many were expected to be from a pro-insurgent Iraqi tribe. A Marine was killed by small arms fire in Husaybah on Sunday, the military said. The New York Times, which has a journalist embedded with the U.S. forces, reported that three Marines were also wounded Sunday. CNN, which also had a reporter accompanying the offensive, said at least one Iraqi soldier has been wounded and that as many as 80 insurgents have died in the fighting. In a live report from the scene Monday morning, CNN said the house-to-house battles were continuing, with ground forces supported by Humvees and tanks working their way through the narrow streets of the bleak desert town. Scores of terrified Iraqis fled the besieged town on Sunday, waving white flags and hauling their belongings. The U.S. military announced Monday that it had killed two regional al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders operating in the Husaybah area during airstrikes that destroyed several insurgent "safe houses" on Oct. 31 near the towns of Karabilah and Obeidi. It identified one of them as Abu Umar, who helped smuggle foreign insurgents into the region and stage deadly roadside bomb attacks against Iraqi and American forces. The other militant was identified as Abu Hamza, who commanded several al-Qaeda cells and helped launch attacks against coalition forces, including ones based at U.S. Camp Gannon in the Husaybah area, the military said. Davis said the militants were putting up a tough fight in Husaybah because "this area is near and dear to the insurgents, particularly the foreign fighters." Speaking by telephone, he said: "This has been the first stop for foreign fighters, and this is strategic ground for them." The U.S. Marines said American jets struck at least 10 targets around the town Sunday and that the American-Iraqi force was "clearing the city, house by house," taking fire from insurgents holed up in homes, mosques and schools. Residents of the area said by satellite phone that sounds of explosions diminished somewhat Sunday, although bursts of automatic weapons fire could be heard throughout the day. The residents said coalition forces warned people by loudspeakers to leave on foot because troops would fire on vehicles. "I left everything behind — my car, my house," said Ahmed Mukhlef, 35, a teacher who fled Husaybah early Sunday with his wife and two children while carrying a white bed sheet tied to a stick. "I don't care if my house is bombed or looted, as long as I have my kids and wife safe with me." The Marines said in a statement that about 450 people had taken refuge in a vacant housing area in Husaybah under the control of Iraqi forces. Others were believed to have fled to relatives in nearby towns and villages in the predominantly Sunni Arab area of Anbar province. U.S. officials have described Husaybah, which used to have a population of about 30,000, as a stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which is led by Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Husaybah had long been identified as an entry point for foreign fighters, weapons and ammunition entering from Syria. From Husaybah, the fighters head down the Euphrates valley to Baghdad and other cities. Several people identified as key al-Qaeda in Iraq officials have been killed in recent airstrikes in the Husaybah area, the U.S. military has said. Most were described as "facilitators" who helped smuggle would-be suicide bombers from Syria. Damascus has denied helping militants sneak into Iraq, and witnesses said Syrian border guards had stepped up surveillance on their side of the border since the assault on Husaybah began. The Americans hope the Husaybah operation, codenamed "Operation Steel Curtain," will help restore enough security in the area so the Sunni Arab population can participate in Dec. 15 national parliamentary elections. If the Sunnis win a significant number of seats in the new parliament, Washington hopes that will persuade more members of the minority to lay down their arms and join the political process, enabling U.S. and other international troops to begin withdrawing next year. However, a protracted battle in Husaybah with civilian casualties risks a backlash in the Sunni Arab community, which provides most of the insurgents. On Sunday, Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, head of the largest Sunni Arab political party, Saleh al-Mutlaq, head of another Sunni faction and a member of the committee that drafted the new constitution, both sharply criticized the offensive, saying it was targeting civilians.

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