Arrowhead Ripper
Operation Arrowhead Ripper
I will post here on this particular entry all there is and will be on this operation.
Let us begin.
From Black Five.
From CQ:
The pursuit of AQI meant that Diyala was the logical next step. Its sectarian mix not only allowed AQI to move into Baquba and its environs, it also gave them opportunities to inflame sectarian tensions. While the US has worked hard to turn the corner in Anbar, AQI fled to fight another day, and that day is today.
The Battle of the Belts have begun and as Michael Yon stated in his latest dispatch, this is the largest operation since the end of major combat four years ago:
After weeks of maneuvering in and around Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces have isolated and cornered large numbers of terrorists in Diyala province (northeast of Baghdad), and especially in the provincial capital, Baqouba. This is a major operation, with 9,000 Americans and a thousand Iraqi troops (and police) involved. In addition, there are several hundred local irregulars, who have switched sides. This is a big change in the Baghdad suburbs. While tribal leaders and warlords in the west (Anbar province) have been turning on terrorist groups, especially al Qaeda, for several years, the gangs of Baghdad were more resistant to changing sides.
A look at the largest offensive operation in Iraq since 2003
Four days after the announcement of major offensive combat operations against al Qaeda in Iraq and its allies, the picture becomes clearer on the size and scope of the operation. In today’s press briefing, Rear Admiral Mark noted that the ongoing operation is a corps directed and coordinated offensive operation. This is the largest offensive operation since the first phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom ended in the spring of 2003.
MNF:
BAQOUBA, Iraq – Task Force Lightning continued its offensive operation in and around the capital of Diyala province, Iraq, today as part of a powerful crack down on al-Qaida terrorists operating in the area.
U.S. and Iraqi combined forces engaged and killed at least 30 al-Qaida operatives, and discovered four IEDs emplaced in houses, and 10 buried IEDs during the first full day of Operation Arrowhead Ripper.
“These criminals will know no safe place to hide in Diyala,” said Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, Deputy Command General for Operations, Task Force Lightning and Multinational Division North. “The people of Diyala are tired of the terror and violence these al-Qaida thugs have brought to their province and are cooperating with us in order to root them out.”
As the Soldiers moved through Baqouba and the surrounding areas, they discovered at least two weapons caches containing assault weapons, grenades, rocket launchers, large and small caliber ammunition and explosives. Ground forces also coordinated a precisions guided munitions strike to destroy a known al-Qaida weapons cache located inside a safe house, and reported a large secondary explosion due to the munitions the terrorists stored inside.
In another incident, Soldiers from Alpha Troop, 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment observed and engaged armed individuals emplacing an IED near Zaganiyah village, along the Diyala river valley.
The gunmen returned fire but the Soldiers, using direct and indirect fires, killed both of the armed IED emplacers.
“This operation is just beginning and we will continue to strike al-Qaida no matter where they hide and we won’t rest until the job is done,” said Bednarek.
Approximately 10,000 Soldiers throughout Diyala Province are participating in and supporting Operation Arrowhead Ripper, which was launched by Task Force Lightning to eliminate al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists. Included in this operation are over 1000 Iraqi Army soldiers and a comparable number of Iraqi Police.
In the short time since Petraeus took charge here, Anbar Province – “Anbar the Impossible” – seems to have made a remarkable turnaround. I just spent about a month out there and saw no combat. I have never gone that long in Iraq without seeing combat. Clearly, some areas of Anbar remain dangerous—there is fighting in Fallujah today—but there is also something in Anbar today that hasn’t been seen in recent memory: possibilities. There are also larger realities lurking up on the Turkish borders, but the reality today is that the patient called Iraq will die and become a home for Al Qaeda if we leave now.But now the AQ cancer is spreading into Diyala Province, straight along the Diyala River into Baghdad and other places. “Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia” (AQM) apparently now a subgroup of ISI (the Islamic State of Iraq), has staked Baquba as the capital of their Caliphate. Whatever the nom de jour of their nom de guerre, Baquba has been claimed for their capital. I was in Diyala again this year, where there is a serious state of Civil War, making Baquba an unpopular destination for writers or reporters. (A writer was killed in the area about a month ago, in fact.) News coming from the city and surrounds most often would say things like, “near Baghdad,” or “Northeast of Baghdad,” and so many people have never even heard of Baquba.
Michael Yon, who I have come to admire for his “good, bad and ugly” analysis of the situation in Iraq, is now in the thick of the fighting in the new operation just kicked off there. He says it is the biggest operation since the invasion and its going to be tough and bloody.
Yon does a review, a sort of how we got where we are today in the piece which is brutally honest. It is also not very flattering to those who have lead us up to this point. But, as he mentioned in the interview I was able to participate in on Pundit Review radio, he’s now changed his mind and feels we have a chance to win this thing since Gen. David “Harry Reid thinks you’re incompetent” Petraeus has taken over.
CBS News Embed: video only~2 minutes
CBS Gloating…first casualties…no details…just a “check in later…morbid MFs.
Fighting house-to-house in urban combat won’t make a dent in the Iraqi insurgency and I’ll put my last dollar on that. U.S. Casualties and deaths will continue until our fearless leaders hear at home grasp the fact that our presence in Iraq is making things worse.
3,544 and counting….
You don’t get out much, do you? Repeating the same lamed Yellow Streak (code pinko fag) garbage doesn’t make it true.
Grow up.
Great roundup, snooper. I have been keeping up with those milblogs for my news on the surge-offensive as well. From what Michael Yon describes, the Coalition is going full bore now and showing no mercy.
michaelinmi…absotively! Thanks for stopping by!
I have a nephew on the USS Stennis at the moment. We are waiting to hear from him to see if he is involved.
Time to send them to Allah
ikez78…Absotively! Allah must be running out of virgins by now. Especially if that pedophile Muhammad is still running around in Paradise.