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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:08 am Post subject: Iraq:U.S. launches biggest air offensive since 2003 invasion |
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Title says it all.
| Reuters wrote: |
BAGHDAD, March 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Thursday it launched its biggest air offensive in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to root out insurgents near a town where recent violence raised fears of civil war.
A military statement said the operation involving more than 50 aircraft and 1,500 Iraqi and U.S. troops as well as 200 tactical vehicles targeted suspected insurgents operating near the town of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.
The statement said "Operation Swarmer" was launched on Thursday morning and is "expected to continue for several days as a thorough search of the objective area is conducted".
Samarra was the site of a bombing attack last month on a Shi'ite shrine that set off sectarian reprisals and pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
"Initial reports from the objective area indicate that a number of enemy weapons caches have been captured, containing artillery shells, explosives, IED-(bomb) making materials, and military uniforms," said the statement.
The U.S. military has launched several major offensives against Sunni Arab insurgents, including one that captured the former rebel stronghold of Falluja, and a series of assaults in the rebel heartland in western Iraq's Anbar province.
But the crackdowns have failed to ease a raging guerrilla campaign that has killed thousands of U.S. soldiers, Iraqi security forces and civilians. |
| Al Jazeera wrote: |
US launches Iraq air offensive
Thursday 16 March 2006, 19:32 Makka Time, 16:32 GMT
The US military says it has launched its biggest air offensive in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.
A military statement said the operation, involving more than 50 aircraft and 1500 Iraqi and US troops, as well as 200 vehicles, targeted suspected insurgents operating near the town of Samarra, 100km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.
The statement said "Operation Swarmer" was launched on Thursday morning and is "expected to continue for several days as a thorough search of the objective area is conducted".
Samarra was the site of a bombing last month of a Shia shrine that set off sectarian reprisals.
"Initial reports from the objective area indicate that a number of enemy weapons caches have been captured, containing artillery shells, explosives, IED-making materials, and military uniforms," said the statement, using an acronym for improvised explosive device, meaning home-made bombs.
The US military has launched several major offensives against Sunni Arab insurgents, including one that captured the former rebel stronghold of Falluja, and a series of assaults in the rebel heartland in western Iraq's Anbar province.
But the crackdowns have failed to ease a raging guerrilla campaign that has killed thousands of US soldiers, Iraqi security forces and civilians. |
I'm wondering about the change in tactics here- air attacks?
I guess they've got some really good intelligence for some precision bombing, or could they be less concerned about collateral damage to civilians? |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:24 am Post subject: |
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| artillery shells, explosives, IED-making materials |
Who is supplying the insurgents with these? |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:33 am Post subject: |
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Highly likely that nobody has to be 'supplying' them.
a)stockpiles before the invasion. the writing was on the wall and there was plenty of time to cache supplies and weapons for a future insurgency, or alternately just grab anything not bolted down to use as currency to feed your family. I'm sure a lot of stuff, some of it even weapons and explosives, was grabbed in that sort of a panic.
b)original US invasion force didn't have the strength in numbers to properly secure the country after the fall of the regime. This would include not just protecting museums and palaces and civilians but it's likely they missed getting to and securing all military supply depots and armories as well.
Still, if there is a supply route there are only a couple of obvious choices- the porous border area where anti-govt insurgents in Iran (nobody seems to have noticed that Iran is presently dealing with its own insurgency) and British controlled Iraq meet would be high on everyone's list, after US forces went after the Syrian border areas last year. If your question was "who" is supplying them... well, anyone who wants to- Islamic Brotherhood/Al Qaeda and other assorted jihadists, Syrians, for-profit arms smugglers... there's no shortage of suspects. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:15 am Post subject: |
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| Bulsajo wrote: |
I'm wondering about the change in tactics here- air attacks?
I guess they've got some really good intelligence for some precision bombing, or could they be less concerned about collateral damage to civilians? |
Well, since you've opened the thread up to uninformed speculation, it could be a number of things, I guess.
My first instinct is to point to the civil war brewing. If Iraq tears itself apart all those purple thumbs will have been meaningless (and maybe we'll be hearing 'the terrorists will have won,' but not from the administration this time). The air attacks demonstrate three things. Firstly, that the US still has shock and awe capabilities when it chooses to disregard the threat of collateral damage. Personally, it would be hard to argue against the supposition that a few airstrikes, provided they were guarenteed to stop civil war (but we can't have such guarentees), that caused even a good deal of collateral damage would be worth it to head off the carnage of a civil war. Secondly, I think the air strikes are a show of force for the Iraqi Army. No matter what happens, the US is going to want them on their side, and this clear demonstration of air superiority is going to show them that A) we care, and B) we are still the only superpower in the game, even if we are a bungling one. Thirdly, this shows me how politically sensitive the entire war has become. American soldiers are increasingly holing up in their fortresses and pushing Iraqi forces to the fore in response to domestic pressures to keep casualties down.
It may also be that the US is trying to take down or at least disperse some militia elements in Samarra. These attacks could be running against a lot of the territory that has fallen into various thugs' hands since the US military has been playing it conservative and after the Shi'a outrage over the Samarra bombings.
It occurs to me also that inside Iraq the US may have the most political backing and legitimacy it has ever had to conduct such airstrikes since the weeks after the invasion. We are being told that many Iraqis are turning against the IED insurgency and bringing tips to US authorities. Well, now with a kind of government established and now threatened by more than the usual suspects of sectarian strife, perhaps the US feels it can launch this kind of bombing rage without actively driving Iraqis into the insurgents. Many Iraqis who fear violence and instability may actually welcome this response, as opposed to how they perceived the American show of force in Fallujah. I would not be overly surprised (but still a bit so) if Sistani were have to okayed the attacks to forestall a civil war that destroy the past few years he spent carefully managing the Shi'a alliance now so strong in Iraq's government.
But this is all speculation. |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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So what's this about?
Seems there's something not quite right about this whole deal.
http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/2006/03/operation_overblown.php
Operation Overblown
BAGHDAD — Operation Swarmer is turning out to be much less than meets the eye, or the television camera, for that matter.
Iraqi and Coalition forces launched Operation Iraqi Freedom��s largest air assault operation in southern Salah Ad Din province March 16. Named Operation Swarmer, the joint operation��s mission was to clear a suspected insurgent operating area northeast of Samarra.
Operation Swarmer included more than 1,500 troops from the Iraqi Army��s 4th Division, the U.S. 101st Airborne Division and 101st Combat Aviation Brigade. The Soldiers isolated the objective area in a combined air and ground assault.
More than 50 Attack and assault aircraft and 200 tactical vehicles participated in the operation. Troops from the Iraqi Army��s 4th Division, the ��Rakkasans�� from the 187th Infantry Regiment and the ��Hunters�� from the 9th Cavalry Regiment assaulted multiple objectives. Forces from the Iraqi 2nd Commando Brigade then completed a ground infiltration to secure numerous structures in the area.
Initial reports indicate a number of weapons caches were captured, containing artillery shells, IED-making materials and military uniforms. Iraqi and Coalition troops also detained 41 suspected insurgents.
That sounds exciting! But according to a colleague of mine from TIME who traveled up there today on a U.S. embassy-sponsored trip, there are no insurgents, no fighting and 17 of the 41 prisoners taken have already been released after just one day. The ��number of weapons caches�� equals six, which isn��t unusual when you travel around Iraq. They��re literally everywhere.
(Digression: Just to clear some things up, ��air assault�� does not equal air strikes. There are no JDAMs being dropped, and there are no fixed-wing aircraft involved at all, except maybe for surveillance. An air assault is the 101st Airborne��s way of inserting troops into a battlespace. There is so far no evidence of bombardment of any kind. Also, it��s a telling example of how ��well�� things are going in Iraq that after three years, the U.S. is still leading the fight and conducting sweeps in an area that has been swept/contained/pacfied/cleared five or six times since 2004. How long before the U.S. has to come back again?)
As noted, about 1,500 troops were involved, 700 American and 800 Iraqi. But get this: in the area they��re scouring there are only about 1,500 residents. According to my colleague and other reporters who were there, not a single shot has been fired. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 12:17 pm Post subject: |
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| some waygug-in wrote: |
\
(Digression: Just to clear some things up, ��air assault�� does not equal air strikes. There are no JDAMs being dropped, and there are no fixed-wing aircraft involved at all, except maybe for surveillance. An air assault is the 101st Airborne��s way of inserting troops into a battlespace. There is so far no evidence of bombardment of any kind. Also, it��s a telling example of how ��well�� things are going in Iraq that after three years, the U.S. is still leading the fight and conducting sweeps in an area that has been swept/contained/pacfied/cleared five or six times since 2004. How long before the U.S. has to come back again?)
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Yes, that had not been made clear when I started this thread, which was about 20 minutes after the first news reports (containing very little info) had been released, and I did jump to the wrong conclusion that 'assault' meant some form of air-to-ground bombardment. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 3:16 pm Post subject: |
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[deleted]
Last edited by Gopher on Tue Jun 13, 2006 3:03 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Bulsajo wrote: |
| Still, if there is a supply route there are only a couple of obvious choices- the porous border area where anti-govt insurgents in Iran (nobody seems to have noticed that Iran is presently dealing with its own insurgency) and British controlled Iraq meet would be high on everyone's list, after US forces went after the Syrian border areas last year. If your question was "who" is supplying them... well, anyone who wants to- Islamic Brotherhood/Al Qaeda and other assorted jihadists, Syrians, for-profit arms smugglers... there's no shortage of suspects. |
I think it highly likely that Iran and Syria and others are playing a covert role in the Iraqi conflict.
Last edited by Gopher on Tue Jun 13, 2006 3:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
I think it highly likely that Iran and Syria and others are playing a covert role in the Iraqi conflict.
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I'd be surprised if they weren't.
And I wouldn't be surprised if the Saudis were still spreading around barrels of money (in Iraq and elsewhere) that still fell into terrorist and insurgent hands; Maybe sometimes inadvertently, other times maybe not so much. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 4:01 am Post subject: |
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Given the state of the current imperial Iraq debacle, this so-called offensive would seem to be little more than a feeble attempt at a feel-good military "side-show".
Then again, don't take my word for it.
Former PM says Iraq in civil war
LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq is in a state of civil war and is nearing the point of no return when the country's sectarian violence will spill over throughout the Middle East, former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Sunday.
http://neoconsdidntdoit.notlong.com/ |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 11:50 am Post subject: |
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So it looks like Operation Swarmer was in fact little more than a PR exercise:
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The past week of activity in Iraq was marked by the launch of Operation Swarmer. On March 16, approximately 1,500 troops, comprising members of the U.S. 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division and Iraq's 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division descended upon areas near As Samarra in Salah ad Din province, using 50 aircraft, with the mission of clearing insurgents from the area.
In actuality, Swarmer was not very different from typical day-to-day operations, except for the use of more air transportation. The operation so far has netted several caches of weapons and bomb-making material and has resulted in the arrests of more than 60 suspected insurgents -- a relatively mediocre result, given the broad media exposure. The lack of firefights or extensive combat suggests that there were actually very few insurgents in the area to begin with, or that the ones who were there managed to evacuate before the assault force arrived. |
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=263805 |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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Former PM says Iraq in civil war
LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq is in a state of civil war and is nearing the point of no return when the country's sectarian violence will spill over throughout the Middle East, former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Sunday. |
Iyad was the former caretaker dictator of Iraq set up by the Americans, and at least once Negroponte went behind his back to make deals with the Shi'a. Iyad may think he still has an axe to grind.  |
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