BAGHDAD, (Reuters):
U.S. MARINES launched their biggest offensive so far this year against al Qaida guerrillas in western Iraq when the military said 2,500 troops moved yesterday against militants around Haditha.
Two months after a previous bid to push Islamist fighters out of the area, Operation River Gate was intended to stop al Qaida operating in the city and two nearby towns, Haqlaniya and Barwana, and to "free the local citizens from the terrorists' campaign of murder and intimidation", a military statement added.
In Baghdad, two people were killed when a car bomb exploded after entering the city's heavily fortified Green Zone.
Three soldiers were killed in bomb attacks near Haqlaniya on Monday, the military said. A fourth, a marine killed on the Syrian border, took the death toll among American forces in Iraq to at least 1,936 since they invaded in 2003.
"Last night, U.S. and Iraqi forces surrounded Haditha," a local resident said by telephone. "Helicopters dropped troops alongside tanks and armoured vehicles in the Askary district."
He said a bridge linking Haditha and Berwana was bombed and several houses, believed to be used by militants, were hit too. Soldiers were going from house to house making arrests, he said.
Haditha is among several towns in the Euphrates valley where local people have said fighters have taken control and imposed Taliban-style Islamic rule, despite frequent U.S. offensives.
"Fighter jets and helicopters are over the city now," said the resident, who asked not to be named for his own safety. "The U.S. Iraqi forces distributed leaflets with phone numbers asking people to call if they want to inform on the insurgents."
U.S. vehicles were also patrolling the streets calling on people to provide information against the militants.
MILITANTS RESILIENT
During Operation Sword in early August, about 1,000 U.S. troops fought militants in Haditha and its neighbouring towns, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Baghdad. Close to the town, on August 3, U.S. ground forces suffered their heaviest loss in a single attack; 14 died when an armoured vehicle hit a landmine.
Within days, however, residents and reporters said Islamist militants were back in control in the town, dispensing summary justice including public executions and banning music and Western-style dress in a manner similar to the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan who first fostered the al Qaeda movement.
U.S. commanders acknowledge that militants have been able to melt away into the countryside during U.S. offensives, only to return when the American forces return to their bases.
The involvement of some 2,500 troops made River Gate the biggest such operation this year in Anbar, the sprawling desert province of western Iraq, the military said in its statement.
Separately, about 1,000 troops have been fighting Qaeda militants near Qaim on the Syrian border, a further 120 km (75 miles) to the west, since Saturday in Operation Iron Fist.
"There are now two major operations going on simultaneously," a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said.
In its statement on Haditha, the military said: "The operation's goal is to deny al Qaeda in Iraq the ability to operate in the three Euphrates River Valley cities and to free the local citizens from the terrorists' campaign of murder and intimidation of innocent women, children and men.
"Haditha is an important crossroads for al Qaeda in Iraq's smuggling activities from the Syrian border. Once in Haditha, smugglers can go north to Mosul or continue on to Ramadi, Falluja or Baghdad. The city is home to approximately 75,000 Iraqis, a vital hydro-electric power plant, and 28 schools.
"Coalition and Iraqi forces located in western al Anbar province have seen a recent increase of al Qaeda in Iraq violence in Haditha."
"BRITON" ARRESTED
The bulk of insurgents, believed by U.S. intelligence officers to number in the tens of thousands, are Iraqis. Some 1,000 foreign al Qaeda militants may be active in the country at the moment, the Iraqi interior minister said this week.
Among 10 people arrested near the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Najaf on Monday, allegedly after crossing the desert border with Saudi Arabia carrying weapons, was a British national, Iraqi security forces and British diplomats said. His identity, however, was not clear and further investigation was under way.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned of an upsurge in violence in the run-up to a constitutional referendum on Oct. 15.
