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Tal Afar drive targets insurgents

Sep-10-2005 » Filed Under: TF Freedom

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. and Iraqi soldiers have been going from house to house in the restive northern city of Tal Afar to ferret out militants in an operation that will continue until it is "freed from insurgents," military officials said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces, traveling in Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, on Saturday swept through one-third of the city, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been sparring with militants in recent weeks.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, in a printed announcement and later in remarks at a news conference, said he ordered the offensive "to remove all remaining terrorist elements from the city of Tel Afar" and stressed that residents and leaders there who are fed up with insurgents "asked us to intervene."

Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi, appearing at the press conference with al-Jaafari and other Cabinet ministers, said the planning for this ultimate siege has been going on over the weeks as Iraqi and U.S. forces massed on the city -- a largely Turkmen city in Nineveh province.

"The basic military operation to purge the city of Tal Afar from the terrorists, the killers has started today," al-Dulaimi said.

There had been efforts to remove the insurgency from the city in a peaceful manner, al-Dulaimi said, but fighting persisted just the same. Over the last two days, for example, 140 insurgents have been killed and more than 190 detained. Thirteen weapons caches have been discovered.

Five Iraqi soldiers have been killed and three injured in the operation.


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