US and Iraqi forces battled insurgents yesterday in a town near the border with Syria as part of a military sweep aimed at preventing foreign fighters from entering the country.
The goal of Operation Steel Curtain, launched early on Saturday, "is to restore security along the Iraqi-Syrian border and destroy al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist networks operating throughout [the town of] Husaybah," the military said.
US officials have long held that foreign al-Qaeda fighters enter Iraq through the border with Syria via the Euphrates valley.
As they entered Husayba, US and Iraqi forces have encountered "sporadic resistance -- mostly small arms fire and improvised explosive devices -- from al-Qaeda in Iraq-led insurgents throughout the city," the military said late Saturday.
At least nine air strikes were called on positions described as "enemy strong points," and a separate strike was carried out against a suspected car bomb.
There were no reports of any military or civilian casualties, the military said.
However there is an undetermined number of insurgent casualties, said the military, which is keeping a tight lid on information from the region.
The operation, involving 1,000 Iraqi army soldiers as well as 2,500 Marines, sailors and soldiers, is one of the biggest joint military operations in the vast restive Sunni Arab province of al-Anbar.
The Iraqi and US forces are also housing and feeding some 400 town residents, the military said.
US officials are especially proud of Iraqi scouts, people they described as "specially recruited soldiers from the al-Qaim region," who are embedded with the front-line units that help "identify insurgent strong points and areas known to contain these homemade bombs."
Steel Curtain follows two earlier operations also along the Euphrates valley in al-Anbar. But this operation is different because it is also designed to set up a joint US-Iraqi permanent presence along the border.
The US forces have been unable to leave garrisons in towns they have cleared of insurgents until recently, when enough trained and equipped Iraqi forces were available, US officials said earlier.
In other Iraq-related news, a UN watchdog agency said on Saturday that the US should reimburse Iraq for US$208 million in apparent overcharges paid to a Halliburton Co.
The International Advisory and Monitoring Board for the Development of Iraq conducted a special audit on Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root unit for the procurement and distribution of fuel products and the restoration of Iraq's oil infrastructure.
The monitoring board cited charges of US$208 million, costs that earlier had been questioned by US military auditors.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
The US government has banned US government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press (AP) has learned. Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing US ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential directive. Although some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket “nonfraternization” policy, as it is known, has
OPTIONS: Asked if one potential avenue to a third term was having J.D. Vance run for the top job and then pass the baton to him, Trump said: ‘That’s one,’ among others US President Donald Trump on Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term
RSS