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U.S. forces tighten grip on Iraq city

Jun-23-2007 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT , 4/2 SBCT

By Alister Bull, Reuters

BAQUBA, Iraq, June 23 (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers tightened their cordon around al Qaeda fighters holed up in the Iraqi city of Baquba on Saturday, advancing carefully through streets lined with roadside bombs and booby-trapped houses.

"We are enveloping the enemy into a kill sack," said Command Sergeant Major Jeff Huggins from the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade.

Around 10,000 American and Iraqi soldiers are into the fifth day of a big push against al Qaeda militants in Diyala province just north of Baghdad. U.S. troops have killed dozens of suspected al Qaeda fighters. One U.S. soldier has been killed.

U.S. air strikes on Saturday also killed seven suspected al Qaeda fighters in Tikrit in Salahuddin province north of Diyala and near Falluja, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Much of the focus is on Baquba, an al Qaeda stronghold that has also become a sanctuary for militants escaping a four-month-old security crackdown in the capital.
Colonel Steve Townsend, commander of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, told local Iraqi political and military leaders that progress was being made.

"I believe the initial stage of the operation will be completed in another three to five days," Townsend said in central Baquba at a building that serves as a joint command centre for U.S. and Iraqi forces.

It was unclear what would happen in the next stage, but the overall offensive around Baquba is expected to last many weeks.

The operation is one of the single biggest offensives since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It aims to cripple the ability of al Qaeda in Iraq to use the rural province for making car bombs as well as improve security so local leaders can revive government services.

Townsend said there were three districts in Baquba where al Qaeda had been a major problem. He said the military had proposed erecting concrete barriers and checkpoints around those areas to protect them.

Major Doug Baker, also from the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, said around 100 al Qaeda fighters were hunkered down in the northwest corner of the Khatoon district in west Baquba.[...]


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