U.S. troops will launch a major military operation in Iraq next week, along with pro-government Iraqi forces, in an effort to blunt the strength of key insurgent groups before the bulk of American combat forces withdraw later this year.
The operation will stretch from the northern provinces of Iraq to Baghdad, military sources said. Along with Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, elements of the 20,000-soldier U.S. Army Task Force Marne will strike at insurgent targets.
It is an effort to disrupt the terror networks of all major insurgency groups — Sunni nationalists, Shi’ite extremists and al Qaeda in Iraq — at a time when those groups are trying to keep a recently elected government from being seated, said Lt. Col. Michael Marti, the senior intelligence officer for Task Force Marne and the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division. “It alleviates a lot of the public fears because we’re targeting all the major insurgency groups,” Marti said in a phone interview from Tikrit, Iraq.
Marti said security operations in Mosul involving American troops along with Kurds and Iraqis have already severely hampered al Qaeda in Iraq’s capabilities and ability to recruit over the past two months. In April, Operation Chelan, led by the Iraqi and Kurdish forces, aided in the capture of top insurgents and caches of weapons, Marti said. “Just within the last 90 days we’ve significantly degraded the senior level leaders in Mosul,” he said. “They can’t make their payrolls for two to three months. It’s opened up intelligence for us because the networks and groups are fractured. So it makes folks want to give up information because they feel betrayed.”
The intelligence obtained from detained insurgents and other individuals during the Mosul operation is aiding U.S. and Iraqi forces in planning the upcoming operation against insurgent leaders in the region. “This operation is important to sustain the momentum that we’ve achieved especially in the last 90 to 120 days,” Marti said. “It denies [al Qaeda in Iraq] the opportunity and access to the populace. It also denies them the opportunity to regenerate. That’s the key to this operation.”
The operation comes on the heels of numerous major attacks in the past month. In early March, three bombings in northern Diyala province killed 33 people when insurgents attacked government and medical buildings. This week Iraqi officials blamed the Sunni insurgent group al Qaeda in Iraq for the deadliest attacks in the region since the beginning of the year. Eighty-five people were killed and more than 300 people were injured when bombs ripped through mainly Shi’ite southern provinces in the south.
The bombings were believed to be retaliation for the deaths of the organization’s top two leaders who were killed in a U.S. airstrike last month. Randy DeCleene, adviser to Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, commanding general of U.S. troops in northern Iraq, said operations “with Iraqi and Kurdish security forces stepping up and Americans in an advise and assist role” will aide the United States in achieving its goal to draw down U.S. troops in Iraq to 50,000 by Sept. 1.
