Friday, March 17, 2006

Operation Swarmer

International Herald Tribune: "U.S.-led forces pressed on Friday with an offensive against suspected guerrilla targets near the north-central town of Samarra, witnesses said.
...
U.S. military officials said Thursday that the operation, involving 50 helicopters, was the biggest 'air assault' since a similar airlift across Iraq just after the war in late April 2003. That operation was also conducted by the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division.

A U.S. military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, said that U.S.-led forces were searching a 10- mile-by-10-mile, or 16-kilometer- square, area for guerrillas and that no casualties had been reported by American or Iraqi forces.

He said that 50 people had been detained and 30 remained in custody. The U.S. military usually describes insurgents as 'terrorists,' so Iraqis netted in the raids could have just been ordinary farmers from rural areas near Samarra.

This operation is not an invasion, and the media have overreacted. The operation aims to search and control the area and launch raids against some suspected places," he [Iraqi defence ministry spokesman, General Salih Sarhan] said."

US Casualties: 0
Iraqi Casualties: 0
Terrorist Casualties: 80

Sounds good.

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