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Operation plymouth rock Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=280383http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=280383
U.S., Iraq Target Rebels in Election Countdown
Reuters
Nov. 24, 2004 - U.S. and Iraqi forces pressed on with aggressive raids against Sunni Muslim insurgents in towns southwest of Baghdad on Wednesday, racing against time to quell rebellion in time for an election in January.
The biggest political party from the once dominant Sunni minority, its heartlands simmering with unrest, called for voting to be postponed, saying emergency laws and the rules for the Jan. 30 ballot were unfair.
But, unlike other Sunni leaders, the Iraqi Islamist Party and seven smaller political and tribal groupings made no explicit threat to call on Sunnis to boycott the poll.
Calling for "national reconciliation" with Shi'ites and the Kurds, they said in a statement: "We confirm our participation in the political process and faith in the electoral process."
Support among ordinary Sunnis for the insurgency blamed on loyalists of Saddam Hussein's old regime and on international Islamists is hard to assess. But many were aggrieved by the storming of the rebel Sunni city of Falluja earlier this month.
"Everyone recognizes that it will be a fight to the elections in those provinces where the insurgents are active," U.S. Lieutenant General David Petraeus said at a passing out parade for the latest Iraqi troops he is charged with training.
"There's still a good deal of fighting to be done."
Training Iraqi forces is a priority for a U.S. command eager to reduce the 138,000 troops it has in Iraq and for Iraqi leaders who see stability depending partly on ending the anger many Iraqis feel at the occupation.
MOSUL VIOLENCE
Those efforts suffered a blow this month in the northern city of Mosul when thousands of newly appointed Iraqi police melted away in the face of a Sunni Arab insurgency while U.S. forces were concentrating their efforts on Falluja.
The violence in Iraq's third biggest city has taken on an ethnic slant, notably since U.S. commanders rushed in units of Kurdish militia from the nearby mountains, angering local Arabs.
On Wednesday, the Kurdish deputy provincial governor said he survived an assassination attempt when gunmen opened fire on his motorcade, killing a bodyguard. Gunmen also ambushed a convoy of Kurdish militiamen as they traveled to Mosul, killing three.
Unlike the Falluja offensive, west of Baghdad, the raids begun on Tuesday in a string of towns to the south along the Euphrates have involved little combat, the U.S. military said.
"This is not a Falluja-like mass assault, marked by heavy fighting," Captain David Nevers of the U.S. Marines told Reuters from a base at Iskandariya, 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad.
"In the coming days, we will be conducting a multitude of very focused raids aimed at capturing or killing insurgents in our area. It is surgical rather than sweeping in nature."
Two weeks after launching the Falluja offensive, where U.S. forces said they killed 1,200 insurgents and took 1,000 prisoners, troops were rounding up suspects across a wide area that has become known as the "triangle of death" because of guerrilla and bandit attacks on travelers on main highways.
Operation Plymouth Rock, named in reference to Thursday's U.S. Thanksgiving celebration, involves 5,000 U.S. troops, Iraqi police commandos and some British soldiers.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite who has been at pains to reach out to Sunni leaders in recent days, told the recruits' passing out parade: "Terrorists are trying to undermine the political process in various provinces.
"We're going to break their back and we're going to prevent them from stopping the political process." NEWS-IRAQ-DC !!NO RICS IN STORY U.S., Iraq Target Rebels in Election Countdown MAC468351
By Alastair Macdonald
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces pressed on with aggressive raids against Sunni Muslim insurgents in towns southwest of Baghdad on Wednesday, racing against time to quell rebellion in time for an election in January.
The biggest political party from the once dominant Sunni minority, its heartlands simmering with unrest, called for voting to be postponed, saying emergency laws and the rules for the Jan. 30 ballot were unfair.
But, unlike other Sunni leaders, the Iraqi Islamist Party and seven smaller political and tribal groupings made no explicit threat to call on Sunnis to boycott the poll.
Calling for "national reconciliation" with Shi'ites and the Kurds, they said in a statement: "We confirm our participation in the political process and faith in the electoral process."
Support among ordinary Sunnis for the insurgency blamed on loyalists of Saddam Hussein's old regime and on international Islamists is hard to assess. But many were aggrieved by the storming of the rebel Sunni city of Falluja earlier this month.
"Everyone recognizes that it will be a fight to the elections in those provinces where the insurgents are active," U.S. Lieutenant General David Petraeus said at a passing out parade for the latest Iraqi troops he is charged with training.
"There's still a good deal of fighting to be done."
Training Iraqi forces is a priority for a U.S. command eager to reduce the 138,000 troops it has in Iraq and for Iraqi leaders who see stability depending partly on ending the anger many Iraqis feel at the occupation.
MOSUL VIOLENCE
Those efforts suffered a blow this month in the northern city of Mosul when thousands of newly appointed Iraqi police melted away in the face of a Sunni Arab insurgency while U.S. forces were concentrating their efforts on Falluja.
The violence in Iraq's third biggest city has taken on an ethnic slant, notably since U.S. commanders rushed in units of Kurdish militia from the nearby mountains, angering local Arabs.
On Wednesday, the Kurdish deputy provincial governor said he survived an assassination attempt when gunmen opened fire on his motorcade, killing a bodyguard. Gunmen also ambushed a convoy of Kurdish militiamen as they traveled to Mosul, killing three.
Unlike the Falluja offensive, west of Baghdad, the raids begun on Tuesday in a string of towns to the south along the Euphrates have involved little combat, the U.S. military said.
"This is not a Falluja-like mass assault, marked by heavy fighting," Captain David Nevers of the U.S. Marines told Reuters from a base at Iskandariya, 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad.
"In the coming days, we will be conducting a multitude of very focused raids aimed at capturing or killing insurgents in our area. It is surgical rather than sweeping in nature."
Two weeks after launching the Falluja offensive, where U.S. forces said they killed 1,200 insurgents and took 1,000 prisoners, troops were rounding up suspects across a wide area that has become known as the "triangle of death" because of guerrilla and bandit attacks on travelers on main highways.
Operation Plymouth Rock, named in reference to Thursday's U.S. Thanksgiving celebration, involves 5,000 U.S. troops, Iraqi police commandos and some British soldiers.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite who has been at pains to reach out to Sunni leaders in recent days, told the recruits' passing out parade: "Terrorists are trying to undermine the political process in various provinces.
"We're going to break their back and we're going to prevent them from stopping the political process."
(This report contains pool material on Allawi, Petraeus.)
Copyright 2004 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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