U.S. seeks to block exits for Iraq insurgents

[maddezmom]

BAQUBA, Iraq: In more than four years in Iraq, American forces have been confounded by insurgents who have often slipped away only to fight another day. The war in Iraq has been likened to the arcade game of whack-a-mole, where as soon as you knock down one mole another pops up.

Taking the fight to insurgents from Al Qaeda did not so much destroy them in Anbar Province as dislodge them, prompting the fighters to build up their strength elsewhere, including Baquba, the capital of Diyala Province.

So the planners of this latest operation are attempting to plug the holes that have allowed the insurgents to escape in the past. The goal is not merely to reclaim western Baquba from insurgent control, but to capture or kill the estimated 300 fighters to 500 fighters who are believed to be based in that part of the city.

~snip~

An indication of what may be in store for those units came Tuesday when a Bradley fighting vehicle was upended by a large, buried bomb, which killed an American crew member. The insurgents have fortified their position by burying many such bombs and laying wires that can be triggered from safe houses. What made the loss of the Bradley particularly worrisome is that the explosion occurred in a heavily trafficked area that American forces had considered successfully cleared.

This American counterinsurgency operation has some of the firepower associated with conventional war. American forces have already fired more than 20 satellite-guided rockets into western Baquba. Apache helicopters have attacked enemy fighters.

more:http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/20/africa/20assess.php

[Jim Warren]

1. Right, couldn't have that

We need those insurgents in Iraq so we can keep fighting them.:eyes:

[conspirator]

2. The only way I see to stop insurgency is to kill all iraqis. Like in the old days of the west when

the american indians were killed and their land taken over.

[ixion]

3. so, then, your strategy for Iraqi Democracy is: "Kill'em all"?

:shrug: :eyes:

[bemildred]

4. Sounds like the same old shit to me.

It's like they just cannot believe that it won't work.