Amid a rough week in Iraq that saw two Marine Corps fighter jets crash, several servicemembers killed and dozens of bomb attacks by a re-emerging insurgency, U.S. military officials said they are still pushing for the offensive.
A series of raids in and around Baghdad led to several arrests of suspected bomb-makers and leaders of terror cells.
Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 10th Mountain Division arrested five men accused of organizing terror cells in what officials are calling focused raids on the Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad. The arrests came after tips from Iraqi citizens, the U.S. military said.
Iraqi army soldiers also swept through the Haifa Street area in Baghdad, known as one of the most dangerous areas in the capital.
“The terrorists’ efforts to intimidate Iraqis are failing. We know this because more and more Iraqis are joining the police force every day,” Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a Task Force Baghdad spokesman, said in a military release Wednesday.
“Private Iraqi citizens are joining the fight by coming forward with information that often leads directly to capturing terrorists and their weapons.”
But, those Iraqis who the military claims are joining the police have become a favorite target of insurgents.
Military officials have said the recent surge in attacks is related to insurgents’ desire to shake confidence in the newly constituted Iraqi cabinet. The deadliest attack occurred Wednesday, when a suicide bomber struck a crowd of applicants at a police recruiting station in Irbil. At least 45 people were killed and more than 200 wounded, Iraqi officials said.
The latest American deaths came when two Task Force Baghdad soldiers were killed by roadside bombs. The separate incidents both took place Tuesday; the identities of the soldiers are being withheld pending notification of family members, officials said.
Investigators have concluded that the Marine fighter jets, which launched from the USS Carl Vinson, likely collided in the air over Iraq during a mission in support of coalition operations. The bodies of both pilots have been recovered.
