BAGHDAD, 6 November 2005 — About 3,500 US and Iraqi troops launched a major offensive near Iraq’s Syrian border yesterday to hunt down Al-Qaeda militants, the military said, adding its aim was to destroy the group’s stronghold and preventing foreign fighters from entering the country. The military also said they launched the offensive to ensure residents can vote in next month’s election.
Sunni Arab leaders complained the operation was killing civilians and a leading Sunni politician was later badly wounded by gunmen in Baghdad, fueling sectarian tensions ahead of the vote. Operation Steel Curtain was one of the biggest in a series of offensives this year in the western province of Anbar, which has been a focal point of the insurgency against the Shiite- and Kurdish-led government and its US backers.
Troops closed roads and clamped down on movement around the frontier towns of Qusayba and Qaim as Iraqis in the rest of the country celebrated the Eid holiday marking the end of Ramadan.
Residents said Iraqi troops were spearheading the offensive, backed by US troops, and they clashed with rebels around Qusayba, a dusty, low-lying town of about 30,000 people. US fighter jets conducted airstrikes in the area. Residents spoke of dozens killed and wounded in Qusayba and nearby Qaim; hospitals could not be contacted.
One of the main Sunni Arab parties, the National Dialogue Council, condemned the offensive, saying it would “shed the blood of more innocent people.”
The party also called for Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi, one of the few Sunnis in government, to be sacked over reported comments this week warning people against harboring insurgents.
Hours later, National Dialogue spokesman Fakhri Al-Qaisi was hit by five bullets as he drove alone in western Baghdad. He was in a critical condition, doctors said.
Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda’s military wing in Iraq renewed its threat to kill foreign envoys in Baghdad on Friday, a day after it said it would kill two Moroccan Embassy hostages who were seized while driving through Anbar from Jordan.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq yesterday claimed it executed 15 Iraqi soldiers kidnapped while on leave two days ago west of Baghdad, according to an Internet statement which could not be independently verified.
In Rabat, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry scoffed at the idea of closing its Baghdad embassy. Al-Qaeda in Iraq “has nothing to teach Morocco,” and Rabat will not succumb to “blackmail,” especially “coming from a terrorist group which cannot claim to represent Iraq,” the ministry said yesterday.
A military statement said 1,000 Iraqi troops, including specially trained scout platoons recruited from the Qaim region, were taking part in the joint operation with 2,500 US forces.
Television footage showed houses wrecked in earlier fighting, burned-out cars and walls riddled with bullet holes.
“The Americans destroyed Qaim. Our houses are destroyed, our children are getting killed. What are we supposed to do now?” one unidentified resident told a local reporter.
Elsewhere in Iraq, insurgents continued to strike at US forces. Three US soldiers were killed on Friday, two in Baghdad and one in Habbaniya, west of the capital near Falluja.
Meanwhile the White House said that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi will meet US Treasury Secretary John Snow and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when he travels to Washington later this month — but not with President George W. Bush.
And about 100 officers from Saddam Hussein’s disbanded army yesterday demanded proper retirement benefits or jobs in Iraq’s new military force. The officers, of various ranks and from around the country, made their demands at a meeting with President Jalal Talabani on the occasion of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday.
In London, the former British ambassador to the United States said the war in Iraq had fueled homegrown terrorism in Britain. Christopher Meyer, who was heavily involved in the planning that led up to the war, said he disagreed with Blair’s view that joining the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq had not exposed Britain to terrorist attacks.
