Baghdad, Iraq – The American military says U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched the largest air assault against insurgents since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
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Baghdad, Iraq – U.S. Launches Largest Air Assault
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U.S. forces staged airborne raids on Sunni insurgents on Thursday as a first session of the new Iraqi parliament was reduced to an empty gesture by deadlock over forming a unity government seen vital to avert civil war.
Signs of movement to end the paralysis did emerge, however, when U.S. and Iranian officials said they could set aside years of hostility to discuss Iraq. And Iraqi political sources said a new alliance of parties may be formed in hope of a breakthrough.
The military said the offensive north of Baghdad involving 650 U.S. troops and 800 Iraqis was fairly routine, but film released by the Pentagon of soldiers being ferried to landing zones provided a graphic image that battles are continuing.
Involving 50 helicopters, it was the biggest “air assault” since a similar airlift across Iraq, also by the 101st Airborne Division, just after the war in late April 2003, officials said.
They added that 41 suspects had been detained near Samarra
A U.S. military statement said the operation near Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) from Baghdad, involved more than 1,500 Iraqi and U.S. troops, 50 warplanes and 200 armoured vehicles
But a Pentagon official, who asked not to be named, sought to play down the scale of the operation against the insurgents, who gather their support from the minority Sunni Arab community, once dominant under Saddam Hussein.
“It’s not precision bombs and things like that,” the official said in Washington. Another said most of the aircraft involved were Blackhawk troop-carrying helicopters
i got some pics of our “yankee boys” in action in iraq, it sure looks like a lot of action going on the pics just continue to stream in