U.S. Military In Major Offensive In Northern Iraq

[Nambe]

TALL AFAR, Iraq, Sept 4 (AFP)

US forces launched a major offensive in northern Iraq Saturday against suspected militant infiltrators from Syria as there was still no news of two captive French journalists.

Insurgents meanwhile disrupted a session of Iraq's interim parliament in Baghdad with mortar fire as fighting also broke out in the rebel strongholds of Ramadi and Fallujah west of the capital.

Eight Iraqis were killed and as many as 40 wounded in the morning operation in the town of Tall Afar west of the main northern city of Mosul, medics said. ..

A 35-year-old woman was shot dead in the crossfire, said police Lieutenant Attala Khalaf al- Dulaimi and Doctor Basil al-Najem of the general hospital.

Two civilians were killed and 11 wounded on Thursday during skirmishes between US troops and insurgents in the city, where shootouts are almost daily. ..

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[ixion]

1. a couple things...

if Iraq is soverign, why are we launching an offensive?

if the insurgents were syrian, why were only Iraqis wounded and killed?

hmmmm?

[TacticalPeek]

2. "...why are we launching an offensive?"

Certain officers need "positive combat experience" on their resume, and do not hesitate to walk over the dead and wounded bodies of their troops and civilians to get that ticket punched.

:grr:

[lebkuchen]

4. Because we're losing control of Iraq

but the Bushies don't want to admit it during an election year.

[0007]

8. What country kills and maims to get their point across?

Is this how democracy works? This is offensive to the thinking mind to truth.

[LauraK]

3. The Turks are threatening to move in and there's OIL up there.

IMO we've lost this war. We don't have the resources to handle the major areas of resistance. We go north, they take the south and the east. European sources consistently report the Iraq army as toast.

[Ms. Clio]

5. A "major offensive?" Is that any relation to "major combat operations?"

The kind that the strutting Chimperor declared had ended a year and a half ago?

And when they're not trying to find a way to mention Iran, they drag in Syria, instead.

[Orion82]

6. I guess they have become even more blood thirsty

eom

[Cocoa]

7. I hope they're not catastrophically successful