Stryker Brigade News

U.S. and Iraqi officials have claimed major successes in Diyala province in the past year, with the help of 28,500 additional U.S. troops and the decision of tens of thousands of Sunni tribesmen to fight the insurgents they once supported.

Violence against civilians and military targets nationwide has dropped 60 percent since June, according to U.S. figures. But a series of deadly suicide bombings, including one that killed at least 14 people in Baghdad on Monday, has raised fears that bloodshed is increasing.

U.S. commanders repeatedly have warned that al-Qaida in Iraq, a mostly local group that the military says is foreign-led, remains a dangerous foe.

“What we want to do … is put a stake in it and be done,” said Brig. Gen. James Boozer, the deputy commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq.

But before the offensive began late Monday, he received reports that 50 to 60 senior insurgent leaders holed up northwest of Muqdadiyah had fled, confirming a long-standing pattern: When U.S. and Iraqi forces attack, the insurgents drop their weapons and blend into the civilian population.

Boozer said the targets might have been tipped off by heightened activity that preceded the operation but added that the military had positioned forces to help determine where they went. Iraqi officials also have hinted for weeks that a push was imminent.

“I think the enemy’s preferred course of action right now is to escape,” said Col. Jon Lehr, commander of the 4th Brigade and U.S. forces in Diyala.

The Diyala mission – dubbed Raider Harvest – is part of a nationwide campaign announced Tuesday called Operation Phantom Phoenix.

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