Tall Afar

WaPo reported 5,000 U.S. and Iraqi Troops Sweep Into City of Tall Afar - .... In the largest urban assault since the siege of Fallujah last November, more than 5,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops entered this northern city before dawn Friday. But the 45-minute firefight at day's end suggested that the insurgents who have controlled much of Tall Afar for almost a year would not relinquish it easily. "We knew they were going to fight," said Pfc. Johnny Lara, a machine gunner from Blue Platoon, Eagle Troop, 2nd Squadron of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, who watched the clash with a reporter from a rooftop about 100 yards away. "Now it's a fight." During the course of the day, at least 30 insurgents were killed as U.S. troops conducted house-to-house searches in the baking sun. Apache attack helicopters that circled the city of 250,000 all day killed 27 people, including eight who were attempting to conceal roadside bombs in old tires, commanders said. No American or Iraqi army casualties were reported.

With all of the news about Katrina, the news about all three of the suspects (Deepak Kalpoe, 18, and Satish Kalpoe, 21, and Joran van der Sloot, 18) getting out of jail in Aruba) did not even get much publicity, so I am not surprised that nothing was said about this important action in Iraq, but I want to congratulate the fine work of the 5,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops involved

Bill Roggio blogged Whether or not Coalition troops remain in force in Tal Afar, the Coalition still maintains the initiative in western and northern Iraq (see The Anbar Campaign for a list of successive operations). As the Anbar Campaign has shown, insurgent IEDs or suicide attacks cannot prevent the U.S. military from operating at the time and place of their choosing.

Iraqi Army units are now entering the fight with significant formations capable of independent operations. During the operations along the Euphrates, typically an Iraqi Army company was embedded within a Marine battalion. In Tal Afar, two Iraqi battalions have been deployed, using their own airlift. The times are changing, and al Qaeda and the insurgents' comfort zone is slowly shrinking.

Jan Haugland blogged Hopefully the political process and the military operations both contribute to put enough pressure on the terrorists to break them.