U.S. closes in on militants in Salman Pak

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Army Capt. Rich Thompson, commander of Company B, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, listens as a group of men point to some buildings they said al-Qaida had used as safe houses before fleeing the area. Thompson and his soldiers are based at COP Carver, southeast of Salman Pak, Iraq, and are working with sheiks in the area to improve security.


U.S. closes in on militants in Salman Pak
By Michael Gisick, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, February 17, 2008

SALMAN PAK, Iraq — U.S. troops Friday launched a concerted move into one of the few areas south of Baghdad that the military believes still holds Sunni insurgents.

The troops, from the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, also began their move into a new home — a still bare-bones combat outpost southeast of Salman Pak.

The outpost, known as COP Carver, will give the battalion a steady presence in the area and access to what has been troublesome countryside, including a peninsula on the Tigris River that was a former stronghold of the Iraqi Republican Guard, said Lt. Col. Jack Marr, commander of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment.

The battalion had received reports of al-Qaida fighters fleeing ahead of the advance and is hoping to cut off their retreat, Marr said.

“I’m tired of pushing them,” he said. “I want to contain them and destroy them.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52557