Agence France-Presse,
BAGHDAD (AFP): US forces backed by warplanes have killed 35 militants, including 25 in a three-day operation near the restive city of Baquba in the heart of the most dangerous region in Iraq after Baghdad.
The operation took place near the town of Mukhisa, northeast of Baquba in the province of Diyala between June 30 and July 2, the US military said in a statement.
Around 10,000 US and Iraqi forces are deployed in Diyala as part of Operation Arrowhead Ripper targeting Al-Qaeda strongholds in the province, which lies northeast of Baghdad.
“During a patrol along the Diyala River near Baquba, coalition forces were engaged by three men with rifles and military-style assault vests from across the river,” the military said in a statement.
“Coalition forces returned fire and the enemy fire subsided, but enemy reinforced its numbers and escalated to include rocket-propelled grenades.”
After determining that the fire was coming from an organised “terrorist” force that moved into a nearby palm grove, coalition forces returned fire and called in close air support, the statement said.
“During the engagement coalition forces killed an estimated 25 terrorists and the enemy fire stopped,” it said.
“Throughout the firefight, a nearby mosque was broadcasting chants for local residents to rise up against the coalition forces; the chants were later replaced by a voice that seemed to be giving orders,” the statement said.
Troops during the operation uncovered weapons caches containing fire extinguishers rigged as improvised explosive devices, mortar rounds, rocket propelled grenade rounds and small arms.
Five more suspects said to be linked to Al-Qaeda were detained.
Dozens of suspected insurgents have been killed and detained since June 19 when Operation Arrowhead Ripper was launched, the largest single assault since US forces invaded the western city of Fallujah in November 2004.
The operation is part of what the US military says a new tactic of using reinforcements from the recently completed troop “surge” to launch simultaneous assaults on insurgents across Iraq.
As US and Iraqi reinforcements have poured into Baghdad in recent months, insurgents have mounted increasing attacks outside the capital, particularly in Diyala.
Their attacks have grown in sophistication, often combining ambushes, roadside bombs and snipers, making the area in and around Baquba one of the deadliest in Iraq.
Nurtured by both the Tigris and Diyala rivers, Diyala contrasts with the arid provinces around it. The province is known as “mini-Iraq” for its ethnic and religious mix and in the last year has become a sectarian quagmire.
The US military also announced the killing of another 10 militants in separate raids in the restive western Sunni Anbar province and in the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, seven people, including three policemen and an Iraqi soldier, were killed in rebel attacks in Iraq on Wednesday.
Two Iraqi journalists working with Sunni television network Baghdad TV were also kidnapped and killed last month, the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.
Mohammed Hilal Karji and Sarmad Hamdi al-Hassani were kidnapped separately and their bodies were later found in the morgue, the watchdog said.
Baghdad TV is owned by Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's Iraqi Islamic Party.
At least 187 journalists and media workers have been killed in Iraq since the start of the March 2003 US-led invasion.
The vast majority have been Iraqis killed by insurgent groups or militias angered by their coverage or ideologically opposed to their employers. Others have been caught in the crossfire between the opposing sides.
