US launches new offensive in western Iraq
The US military today launched a major offensive in a cluster of cities in the Euphrates River valley aimed at insurgents who were using the area as a safe haven and who had killed 20 Marines there in August.
Air strikes by US warplanes and dozens of helicopters set off explosions that lit the city skylines of Haqlaniyah and nearby Parwana. Barrages of gunfire also were seen in the night sky. Large sections of Haqlaniyah’s power were knocked out before dawn.
About 2,500 US Marines, soldiers and sailors and several hundred Iraqi troops were taking part in the operation, which began three days after about 1,000 service members launched a separate US offensive further to the west in the Euphrates River valley near the Syrian border in the village of Sadah and the nearby towns of Rumana and Karabila.
