BAGHDAD (AP)-[off the wire, no link]-Coalition forces ended their six-day "Iron Fist" offensive in western Iraq on Thursday, the day when two U.S. Marines were killed by a roadside bomb that hit their patrol outside the town of Qaim, the region near the Syrian border where the operation was being waged, the military announced Friday.
It said the offensive killed a total of more than 50 insurgents, and that coalition forces established a new outpost in the town Sadah, where it began, to protect its citizens.
The two U.S. deaths brought to six the number of U.S. troops killed in Iron Fist and in River Gate, which was launched Tuesday in the towns of Haditha, Haqlaniyah and Parwana.
The Mountaineers offensive by 500 U.S. and 400 Iraqi forces was taking place in and around the city of Ramadi, 115 kilometers west of Baghdad.
In addition, Iraqi and U.S. forces recently began Operation Saratoga in northern Iraq in order to improve safety in towns such as Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah before the referendum this month.
Apart from those offensives, four Marines were killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Karma, near the town of Fallujah, 65 kilometers west of Baghdad, the military said.
The six Marine deaths brought to 1,950 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Copyright © 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.(AP-DJ)--10-07-05 1530EDT |
50 more terrorists bite the dust. Only a gazillion more to go. Excellent work soldiers!
But now check out the CNN version of the story.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six Marines were killed in roadside bombings in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, the Marines said Friday.
A homemade bomb exploded Thursday near Karma, killing four Marines.
Another blast Thursday killed two Marines on patrol in Qaim.
The number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war stands at 1,953.
U.S. and Iraqi troops have been conducting two major offensives in the province.
The Marines said Friday that they had wrapped up Operation Iron Fist and established new outposts in Sa'da, a town on the Euphrates River near the Syrian border.
More than 50 members of al Qaeda in Iraq were killed in the six-day mission, a Marines statement said.
Troops were still working to drive insurgents out of Haditha, Haqlaniya and Barwana as part of Operation River Gate. Weapons caches were found in Haditha and Haqlaniya, the U.S. military said.
The fighting came amid U.S. military warnings that insurgents may seek to disrupt the October 15 referendum on the new Iraqi constitution.
Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, deputy director of operations for the region, said Thursday that attacks on U.S. troops were on the rise.
"Since about April, May, that had been going down, just every month, until last month," Ham said. "And then in September of '05, it started to come back up again."
He said there were about 152,000 American troops in the country -- up from 140,000 in the summer. The Pentagon says the increase in troop levels is a short-term one that will last through this month's referendum vote.
In Baghdad, a U.S.-led coalition spokesman said the same rise in insurgency strikes occurred as the January 30 elections approached.
A suicide car bombing killed 10 people and wounded eight others Thursday near the Iraqi Oil Ministry in eastern Baghdad, police said. The bomb detonated in a red Kia minibus.
Earlier Thursday, a suicide car bomber targeted a convoy of private American security contractors in central Baghdad, wounding eight Iraqi civilians, police said. |
They of course lead with the 6 US soldiers who died as the main priority, second the total killed in the war, and then when they can find the time, the progress of the GWOT and as a side story. What a bunch of crap. And people still think the MSM isn't biased? |
