More death thanks to that punk ass chimp

US Preparing

Massive Assault on

Tal Afar
Reuters
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Thursday 08 September 2005

The United States is considering an all-out military attack in the coming weeks against the town of Tal Afar in northern Iraq, which it sees as a stronghold of rebellion, a US general said on Thursday.

US and Iraqi troops have been battling insurgents in Tal Afar, west of the northern city of Mosul, for several days. A joint US-Iraqi military statement said they killed seven insurgents on Wednesday.

Many families have evacuated the town in recent days as violence increased.

"In Tal Afar, coalition forces and members of the Iraqi security forces are preparing a possible military operation to rid that city of insurgents," Major General Rick Lynch told a news briefing in Baghdad.

"As we speak, operations are ongoing to evacuate civilians from neighborhoods targeted by the insurgents."

The United States sees Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, as a conduit for foreign fighters and military equipment coming into Iraq to help insurgents fighting the occupying US forces and the Shi'ite Muslim - and Kurdish - dominated Iraqi government.

The insurgents are mainly drawn from Iraq's third main community, Sunni Arabs, who account for some 20 percent of the population and have dominated Iraqi politics for decades, under ousted leader Saddam Hussein and before.

"You will see, over the next several weeks - we're not specifying any time - specific military operations to target the insurgency in Tal Afar," Lynch said.

Foreign Fighters

He said US forces were encouraging the evacuation so a possible military strike would avoid civilian deaths.

"If indeed decisive military operations are required, we want to ensure that the attacks take place to kill the insurgents without collateral damage in killing innocent civilians."

He said US forces had "indications" that insurgents were living in Tal Afar, and intelligence reports suggested some 20 percent of them were "foreign fighters." He did not say where they came from.

Lynch added that US and Iraqi forces had been trying to wipe out the insurgency in a series of operations since May, culminating in the operations of the last few days.

They have so far failed to put down rebellions, but Lynch said the growing number of US-trained Iraqi government troops - there are now 190,000 of them - should mean the resources were in place to quell future insurgencies.

"We have now sufficient assets available between the coalition forces and Iraqi security forces ... to leave behind a robust security presence so the insurgents cannot return."

Lynch warned against seeing any attack on Tal Afar as a re-run of an attack in November on the city of Fallujah.

US troops surrounded that Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad and effectively cut it off, but encountered fierce resistance and bloodshed when they entered.

"Every situation is different. Don't try to equate Tal Afar with any previous operation," he said.