U.S., Iraqi Troops Launch Ramadi Operation

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/02/ap/world/mainD8E86NMG0.shtml

U.S., Iraqi Troops Launch Ramadi Operation

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 2, 2005


(AP) U.S. and Iraqi troops launched an operation against militants in the western town of Ramadi on Friday, less than two weeks before key parliamentary elections, while some Shiites joined hundreds of Sunni Muslims in Baghdad to denounce widespread arrests of suspected insurgents.

About 300 U.S. Marines and 200 Iraqi troops took part in "Operation Shank" in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, in the fifth such mission in the area in recent weeks designed to calm the area before the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

On Thursday, the U.S. military played down reports by residents and police of widespread attacks against American and Iraqi installations in the city. The military said only one rocket-propelled grenade was fired but caused no injuries. Insurgents left behind posters and graffiti saying they were members of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The Sunnis and Shiites prayed together Friday before the joint demonstration in central Baghdad in a show of unity ahead of the potentially divisive elections.

Men waved Iraqi flags and women dressed in black robes carried posters of their missing sons. Some protesters held up portraits of Sunni clerics who have been killed since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

The joint prayer ceremony at Iraq's most famous Sunni shrine was called by Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi, who has been working to ease tensions between the rival Muslim communities.

[Inland]

1. Is this the third or fourth time we've "cleaned out" Ramadi? nt