Marines Push Into Rebel Areas on Day 3 of Offensive in West Iraq

[chlamor]

My Comment: They are getting quite close to the Syrian border.


Marines Push Into Rebel Areas on Day 3 of Offensive in West Iraq
U.S. troops uncover weapons caches in house-to-house searches. Insurgent attacks from the south side of the Euphrates are a surprise.

By Solomon Moore, Times Staff Writer


OUGHAYMAH, Iraq — U.S. Marines advanced farther into insurgent strongholds near the border with Syria in western Iraq on Tuesday, the third day of a major assault in which the military says it has killed more than 100 fighters and discovered large weapons caches.

Eight suspects were reported slain in sporadic attacks Tuesday throughout the Ramana area, a ribbon of agricultural villages in Al Anbar province, a largely Sunni Muslim region.


Three Americans have been killed, 25 have been wounded and 110 insurgents have died in the fighting that began Sunday, the Marine Corps said. More than 1,000 troops are taking part in the offensive, which is aimed at capturing or killing rebel recruits from western Iraq and foreign fighters who cross the border here.

In New Ubaydi, one of the towns where Marines struggled for hours Monday to cross to the north side of the Euphrates River, a Cobra attack helicopter fired machine-gun blasts at several suspects speeding away in a car, killing the occupants. Pilots used a Hellfire missile against another suspect vehicle that had ducked under a gas station awning. It burned for hours after the strike.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-offensive11may11,1,5488146.story?coll=la-iraq-complete&ctrack=1&cset=true

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I remind you the words of our fearless leader

in the battle for Iraq the United States has prevailed, all major combat operations are over... so exactly what are this? Police Actions?

[FloridaPat]

2. When they "accidently" bombed the wedding in W. Iraq a year or

so ago, it was rumored that the US attacked because that is the route US deserting soldiers take when they are helped out of the country by Iraq's. How come all of a sudden this is a important place filled with "insurgents"? Are we going to destroy every building in the country so Halliburton can make more billions faking the rebuilding?