I’m not sold yet on the validity of that headline. Still, it it noticably the largest air assault since the end of major operations in the Iraqi theater.
Combined American and Iraqi forces yesterday launched the largest air assault the country has seen since the US-led invasion, targeting insurgent strongholds near Baghdad.
The US military said the offensive, dubbed Operation Swarmer, was aimed at clearing “a suspected insurgent operating area” north-east of Samarra and was expected to continue for several days.
“More than 1,500 Iraqi and Coalition troops, over 200 tactical vehicles, and more than 50 aircraft participated in the operation,” the military statement said.
Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, was the site of the massive bombing of a Shiite shrine on 22 February which touched off sectarian bloodshed that has killed more than 500 and injured hundreds more.
It is a key city in Salahuddin province, a major part of the so-called Sunni triangle where insurgents have been active since shortly after the US-led invasion three years ago. Saddam Hussein was captured in the province, not far from his home town, Tikrit.
Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s interim foreign minister, said the attack was necessary to prevent insurgents from forming a new stronghold such as they had established in Fallujah, west of Baghdad.
“After Fallujah and some of the operations carried out successfully in the Euphrates and on the Syrian border, many of the insurgents moved to areas nearer to Baghdad,” Mr Zebari said. “They have to be pulled out by the roots.”
Residents north of Samarra said there was a heavy US and Iraqi troop presence in the area and that large explosions could be heard in the distance.
They said the operation appeared to be concentrated near four villages – Jillam, Mamlaha, Banat Hassan and Bukaddou – near the highway leading north from Samarra to the city of Adwar.
Waqas al-Juwanya, a spokesman for the provincial government’s joint co-ordination centre in nearby Dowr, said: “Unknown gunmen exist in this area, killing and kidnapping policemen, soldiers and civilians.”
The military said a number of weapons caches had been captured, containing shells, explosives, bomb-making materials and military uniforms.
As expected, early reporting on this was sketchy. Bob Owens at Confederate Yankee gives CNN credit for getting the terminology of air assault correct, something that we both find somewhat surprising. Some early reporting (I’m too lazy too track down over dial-up) had talked of an air raid or an air attack or an air strike — all of which Mr. Owens points out graphically implies a completely different operation (as a side note, I got a little involved in the comments about the history of combat gliders).
Heck, maybe that’s why Air Assault has it’s own badge in the U.S. Army.
Hooah for their success today.