Allies Swarm Terror Nests

Since 03-20-06

By NILES LATHEM Post Correspondent

March 17, 2006
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/61109.htm (copy link and paste it into a new window to view it)

March 17, 2006 -- U.S., IRAQI TROOPS IN MASSIVE ASSAULT
WASHINGTON - Elite U.S. and Iraqi commandos stormed terrorist strongholds north of Baghdad yesterday in the largest airborne assault since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In a major new offensive code-named Operation Swarmer, troops from the Army's 101st Airborne Division were joined by a force of specially trained Iraqi commandos in surprise raids on insurgent hideouts in a 10-square-mile area in four villages outside Samarra.

The operation is aimed at wiping out what a U.S. military spokesman said was a "suspected insurgent operating area" that al Qaeda forces loyal to terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were using as a base to launch suicide bomb attacks in the Baghdad area, 60 miles away.

"After Fallujah and some of the operations carried out successfully in the Euphrates and Syrian border, many of the insurgents moved to areas nearer to Baghdad. They have to be pulled out by the roots," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told CNN.

Military officials told The Post that advance intelligence, which came from the new Iraqi government, indicated there were several "high-value targets" suspected of being in the area.

But there were no reports that Zarqawi or any of his top henchmen were among the 41 people captured in the initial raids.

"Initial reports from the objective area indicate that a number of enemy weapons caches have been captured containing artillery shells, explosives, IED [improvised explosive device]-making materials and military uniforms," Multi-National Force Iraq said in a statement.

"The operation is expected to continue for several days as a thorough search of the object area is conducted," the statement added.

Military officials said yesterday's operation was not the largest overall offensive since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

But they said it was notable for the aggressive new tactics employed to achieve the element of surprise and for the increasing sophistication and involvement of Iraqi forces in complex military missions.

President Bush was briefed on the new offensive, but said the decision on where and when to strike was up to military commanders on the ground.

"Our commanders in theater have the authority to make tactical decisions about the operations that they undertake," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"This operation is part of our ongoing security efforts to help move forward on the security front," McClellan added.

A force of 1,500 troops, including 700 troops from the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade Combat Team and 800 troops from the Iraqi Army's 4th Division, participated in a "combined air and ground assault to isolate the area," the military said in a statement.

Some of the troops dropped by rope from 50 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters while others rushed out the ramp of CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters when they landed.

"The aircraft met Iraqi and U.S. troops at a pickup zone, then they moved rapidly to and landed on loading zones that supported isolating the objective and began clearing the objective," Lt. Edward Loomis, spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division, told The Post in an e-mail from Iraq.

Apache AH-64 assault helicopters and AC-130 gunships provided extra firepower, while unmanned Predator Drones beamed video to commanders coordinating the operation.

High-tech night-vision devices were also employed, giving U.S. military forces overwhelming technical superiority over their unsuspecting targets, military officials said.

The initial offensive took place in the villages ofJillam, Mamlaha, Banat Hassan and Bukaddou, 20 miles northeast of Samarra along a highway leading from Samarra to Adwar. Loomis said however that "towns and villages" are not the targets of the operation. "Terrorists and their bases are."

Additional U.S. and Iraqi troops in 200 tactical vehicles, including Humvees and troop transports, sealed off roads to deny insurgents escape routes, military officials said.

Although residents told Western journalists they heard several explosions in the area, military officials said coalition forces encountered little resistance in the initial assault and incurred no casualties.

Military officials were careful to praise the new Iraqi troops who participated in the mission, some of whom joined U.S. commandos flying the helicopters into the hot zone, sources said.

Commanders and members of the new Iraqi government are hoping these kinds of operations will demonstrate that the fledgling security forces are growing in capability and would some day be able to take over the job of the 130,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq.

The 101st Airborne Division participated in the initial invasion of Iraq in March 2003, and has been in and out of the country since.

Members of the Rakkasans of the 187th Regiment, who participated in yesterday's operations, headed the training of the Iraqi units involved in the raids, military officials said.

Samarra, in Salahuddin province, is located in the white hot epicenter of the volatile Sunni triangle. It was the scene of last month's terrorist bomb attack on a revered gold-domed Shiite shrine that brought Iraq to the brink of sectarian civil war.

Military spokesmen said the timing of the operation, in part, was designed to clear the area of insurgent activity in advance of an important Shiite holiday next month. The holiday draws Shiite pilgrims into the city.

The name Operation Swarmer comes from the nickname of "the largest peacetime airborne maneuvers ever conducted" in the spring of 1950 in North Carolina, the military said in a statement.

"Soon after this exercise, the 187th Infantry was selected to deploy to Korea as an Airborne Regimental Combat Team to provide General MacArthur with an airborne capability," the statement added.