BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. forces fighting al Qaeda and allied militants intensified operations yesterday in Baghdad and on all four points of the compass around the capital.
To the south, suspected Shi’ite militiamen bombed three Sunni houses of worship.
An Associated Press reporter in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province to the north and east of Baghdad, reported intense gunbattles in the streets and around the main market district as U.S. and Iraqi forces sought to clear the city of al Qaeda fighters.
Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, an Iraqi military commander in Diyala, said security forces had ringed the city and were not letting anyone come or go. He said many al Qaeda fighters had hidden their weapons and were trying to flee Baqouba.
“Citizens have given us the names of hundreds of al Qaeda elements who have quit fighting and are hiding in their houses in Baqouba. These people are going to be arrested after the end of the battles,” the general said.
The latest U.S. military report on the Diyala offensive said U.S. and Iraqi forces killed at least 30 al Qaeda operatives and discovered 10 roadside bombs and four homemade bombs Tuesday, the first full day of fighting.
Iraq’s Defense Ministry said three civilians were wounded, 13 suspected al Qaeda fighters were detained and 14 roadside bombs dismantled. Troops also defused three car bombs and seized three weapons caches, it said.
The head of a Sunni insurgent group that has turned against al Qaeda in Diyala province and is cooperating with U.S. and Iraqi forces in the area said his fighters were participating in the operations and had succeeded in clearing several neighborhoods in eastern and western Baqouba.
The U.S. military said it has 10,000 U.S. soldiers in Diyala province, an al Qaeda bastion, a troop strength that matched in size the force that U.S. generals sent against the insurgent-held city of Fallujah 21/2 years ago.
With all of the nearly 30,000 additional troops ordered to Iraq by President Bush now in place, the military said the massive operations on Baghdad”s flanks were “a powerful crackdown to defeat extremists” and named the combined offensives “Operation Phantom Thunder.”
In what appeared to be the second-largest assault, an estimated 2,500 U.S. soldiers were pushing into districts south and southeast of the capital. They killed four insurgents, detained more than 60 others and destroyed 17 boats, “significantly disrupting insurgent operations on the Tigris River,” the military said.
In a renewed blow to stability yesterday, suspected Shi’ite militants blew up three Sunni mosques south of Baghdad, causing heavy damage but no casualties. The bombings were apparently revenge strikes for a suicide truck bombing a day before that badly damaged an important Shi’ite mosque in the heart of the capital. At least 87 persons died in that attack.
Police said suspected Shi’ite militiamen detonated a bomb inside a Sunni mosque in Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad, at about 1 a.m. About six hours later, militants struck again at mosque near Hillah, 60 miles south of the capital. A third Sunni mosque was attacked and damaged in an explosion in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad; that mosque was first attacked last week.
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