British and US troops launch Iraq offensive
Five thousand US marines, British troops and Iraqi commandos launched a new offensive in the "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad today.
The joint operation kicked off with early morning raids in the town of Jabella in Babil province, netting 32 suspected insurgents, the US military said. Jabella is 50 miles south of Baghdad.
Insurgent violence has increased in the areas south of the capital in the wake of the US led assault on the militant stronghold of Fallujah in “an apparent attempt to divert attention” away from Fallujah, the military said.
The cluster of dusty, small towns located south of the capital, has been a major area for insurgent activity. US and Iraqi forces have come under repeated attacks by car bombs, rockets, and small arms fire in the area.
The region has become known as a “triangle of death” for many Shiite Muslims, Westerners and members of the Iraqi security services, many of whom have become the victims of Sunni Muslim insurgents and criminal gangs.
The military said US and Iraqi forces have continued rounding up insurgents in house-to-house searches and vehicle checkpoints. In the past three weeks, Iraqi troops and Marines have detained nearly 250 insurgents, the statement said.
They have been aided by British forces from the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch Regiment, who were brought into the area from southern Basra to aid American forces in closing off militant escape routes between Baghdad, Babil province to the south and Anbar province to the west.
It would be the third major military offensive against insurgents since the massive Fallujah operation, which has claimed the lives of more than 50 US soldiers and injured more than 400.
Earlier this month, the northern city of Mosul witnessed a mass insurgent uprising in apparent support of Fallujah’s guerrillas. Some 2,400 US troops were sent in to retake control over western parts of the city.
