Mar 14 2007

Chasing Iraqi Insurgents

Published by at 1:05 pm under All General Discussions,Diyala,Iraq

The Surge has chased much of the violent insurgency out of Baghdad and heading to find safe havens farther out in the country. But this time the US is chasing them down, or more accurately hunting them down, giving them no quarter, no rest.

More than 700 U.S. troops rolled into Diyala on Tuesday in armored vehicles to help quell escalating violence in the Iraqi province that has become a haven for insurgents targeted by the Baghdad security crackdown.

The Army battalion was transferred from Taji to Baqubah, capital of the religiously mixed province that extends from Baghdad to the Iranian border, the military said. It joined about 3,500 U.S. troops already stationed there.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, the U.S. commander for northern Iraq, had requested the reinforcements to confront a rise in sectarian and insurgent attacks in outlying regions since U.S. and Iraqi troops began a crackdown in Baghdad last month.

U.S. commanders believe insurgent fighters have moved into the province from Baghdad and Al Anbar, the western Iraqi province that is the center of the Sunni Arab insurgency.

“We see the Sunni insurgency trying to desperately gain control of Diyala, because it helps in their effort to control Baghdad and to prevent the government of Iraq from succeeding,” Mixon told Pentagon reporters via video link from Iraq last week.

U.S. officials did not specify how long the new battalion would be based in Diyala. But Mixon said he was “cautiously optimistic that in the next 30 to 60 days that we’re going to see some significant differences in the security situation in Diyala.”

I wonder who will surrender first – the dems or the terrorists?

3 responses so far

3 Responses to “Chasing Iraqi Insurgents”

  1. lurker9876 says:
    March 14, 2007 at 1:59 pm

    Good! I was wondering how we could put more people into Baghdad and Al-Anbar when these insurgents would move from Baghdad and Al-Anbar to other towns.

    Glad to see that we are not giving them any legroom inside and outside Baghdad and Al-Anbar.

    The signs are all there for the Democrats to surrender long before the terrorists will. The terrorists aren’t surrendering. They’re either fighting or moving away.

  2. crosspatch says:
    March 14, 2007 at 3:43 pm

    Looks like Iran has lost another top general along with his family. And no, I am not talking about the “top ranked officer” that has apparently gone missing in Iraq. The guy I am talking about is a top Revolutionary Guard intelligence officer:

    In recent days, intelligence circles in Tehran have been awash with rumors of a second high-level defection to the Americans of a Revolutionary Guards intelligence officer, Brig. Gen. Seyed Mohammad Soltani.

    Gen. Soltani is a career intelligence officer, who took over as head of the Persian Gulf bureau of Rev. Guards intelligence in October 2006. On Feb. 8, just one day after Gen Asgari disappeared in Istanbul, Gen. Soltani traveled to Bandar Abbas, where he was scheduled to inspect an intelligence listening post. Instead, he vanished.

    Bandar Abbas is Iran’s largest port and houses the Rev. Guards main naval base. It sits at the mid-point of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where 20 percent of the world’s oil transits daily.

    So far, the official media in Tehran has not mentioned Gen. Soltani’s alleged disappearance and defection. But NewsMax sources in Tehran said that his wife and two children have also disappeared, and that the Revolutionary Guards searched his house in the Amirieh district of Tehran searched on Feb. 11.

    On Feb. 13, Rev. Guards counterintelligence officers informed the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) of Gen. Soltani’s disappearance. On the following day, they sent a “red notice” with Soltani’s photograph to all Iranian ports and airports. On Feb. 18, they arrested Soltani’s brother, Seyed Akbar Soltani, who is a teacher at Imam Hussein University.

    Gen. Soltani was known as “Engineer Mousavi” within Revolutionary Guards intelligence, and has intimate knowledge of foreign intelligence operations, especially in Iraq and in other Persian Gulf countries.

    “How the United States treats these defectors is critically important,” said opposition activist Sardar Haddad. “If they treat them well, the word will get back to Tehran and you could see the flood gates open. Lots of people are available for the taking under the right conditions.”

    More here

  3. HILLARYNEEDSAVACATION says:
    March 14, 2007 at 10:14 pm

    Uh Oh Nancy…

    Putting your hopes on terrorists never pays……