"Operation Squeeze Play" is proving easier than expected, says the man who lost 6 troops Wed.

[maddezmom]

~snip~

"Operation Squeeze Play" is proving easier than expected considering this 20-block section of southeastern Ramadi — known as "Second Officer's District" because it's home to so many former leaders of Saddam Hussein's army — was not so long ago a no-go zone for U.S. troops.

"You used to look at a map and it'd be like the Columbus-era, 'South of here lies dragons,' because nobody ever went there," said Capt. Jon Paul Hart, assistant operations officer for the Army's 1st Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment. "All we knew was that it was really bad, really dangerous."

Ramadi, the capital of the western, overwhelming Sunni Arab province of al-Anbar, has seen some of the bloodiest street battles of the war. Sunni insurgents remain well-entrenched here and continue to move freely through parts of downtown where Americans often dare not set foot.

At least six U.S. troops were killed in fierce fighting in the province on Wednesday, the military said.

But as the White House faces calls to revisit its Iraq policy, U.S. forces in Ramadi insist their strategy here — taking ground and holding it — is proving effective.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061208/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_occupying_ramadi

[xchrom]

1. yeah -- the insurgents just move.

because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there -- or aomeplace else.

our military seems to be intellectually slow on the uptake here.

[leftchick]

2. The US Military Claims to have Killed 20 "Terrorists" today

"terrorists" is really getting old. They are Iraqis....



and they want us OUT! So do I.

[maddezmom]

3. Reuters: Iraqis say U.S. raid killed 32, including 6 children

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-12-08T105746Z_01_COL838886_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-QAEDA-TOWN.xml

[leftchick]

7. thank you for the link mm.

more of the same war crimes. The Military always calls Iraqis sleeping in their beds "terrorists" when them bomb them to their deaths.

[GreenZoneLT]

4. Those particular ones, probably not

There are a lot of foreign fighters in Iraq from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan, etc. That's who gets labeled "terrorists," and they're the main force of Al Qaeda in Iraq. They really are terrorists; the stuff they do to Iraqis is disgusting (torture, beheading). The Anbar tribes have begun fighting them because they hate them worse than they hate us.

The guys they blew up yesterday had suicide belts among their cache of stuff, so probably were not Iraqis (Iraqis haven't caught the suicide bomber disease yet, to speak of).

Sunni gunmen are mostly referred to by the U.S. as "insurgents" or "illegal armed groups." Shiite gunmen are mostly ignored, except when their behavior is such that they rise to "death squads." Iraqis are the vast mass of people who a) want the fighting to stop and b) want the U.S. to leave, mainly because they think it will lead to a).

[EFerrari]

5. Politicians at home aren't nearly so reality based in their labeling.

They use "insurgents" to create fear or induce nationalism and "Iraqis" to in spire sympathy or sometimes like lately, when they want to hand off blame. Listening to them, you can hear the categories slide around like oil in a hot pan.

[leftchick]

6. foreign fighters make up less than 5% of the "enemy"

The US has killed a hell of a lot more innocents than "terrorists". Eight Women and six children just today! Aren't ya proud???

<snip>

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi police and local officials said at least six children and eight women were among 32 people killed in a U.S. air strike on Friday which the U.S. military said killed 20 al Qaeda militants, including two women.

Police Major Khedr Hussein said 32 people were killed at Ishaqi, 90 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad. Mayor Amer Alwan told Reuters U.S. aircraft bombed two homes around 1 a.m (2200 GMT). He said 32 people were believed to be inside and that of 25 bodies pulled so far from the rubble, eight were women and six children.

U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said the raid in Ishaqi was one in which U.S. ground troops with air support killed 20 al Qaeda suspects in the Thar Thar area of Salahaddin province and recovered weapons.

... can you see how this is a LOST CAUSE? And the US is committing War Crimes?

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-12-08T105746Z_01_COL838886_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-QAEDA-TOWN.xml

[Warren Stupidity]

8. Wow they must have hit a motherlode!

"The US and the Iraqi government have overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, "feeding the myth" that they are the backbone of the insurgency, an American thinktank says in a new report.
Foreign militants - mainly from Algeria, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia - account for less than 10% of the estimated 30,000 insurgents, according to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1576666,00.html

Among Insurgents in Iraq, Few Foreigners Are Found
When the air and ground operation wound down in mid-September, nearly 200 insurgents had been killed and close to 1,000 detained, the military said at the time. But interrogations and other analyses carried out in recent weeks showed that none of those captured was from outside Iraq. According to McMaster's staff, the 3rd Armored Cavalry last detained a foreign fighter in June.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR2005111602519.html

Foreign detainees are few in Iraq
By Peter Eisler and Tom Squitieri, USA TODAY
Suspected foreign fighters account for less than 2% of the 5,700 captives being held as security threats in Iraq, a strong indication that Iraqis are largely responsible for the stubborn insurgency.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-07-05-detainees-usat_x.htm

The 'myth' of Iraq's foreign fighters
Report by US think tank says only '4 to 10' percent of insurgents are foreigners.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

The US and Iraqi governments have vastly overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, and most of them don't come from Saudi Arabia, according to a new report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS). According to a piece in The Guardian, this means the US and Iraq " feed the myth" that foreign fighters are the backbone of the insurgency. While the foreign fighters may stoke the insurgency flames, they make up only about 4 to 10 percent of the estimated 30,000 insurgents.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0923/dailyUpdate.html


Few Foreigners Among Insurgents
Judging from fighters captured in Fallouja, all but about 5% are Iraqi, U.S. officials say.


by John Hendren

CAMP FALLOUJA, Iraq — The battle for the city of Fallouja is giving U.S. military commanders some insight into this country's insurgency, painting a portrait of a home-grown uprising dominated by Iraqis, not foreign fighters.

Of the more than 1,000 men between the ages of 15 and 55 who were captured in intense fighting in the center of the insurgency over the last week, just 15 are confirmed foreign fighters, Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, said Monday.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1116-23.htm