It only took three days for “Operation Forward Together” to be blasted into the dustbin of history. Started for purely domestic US political reasons and timed to coincide with a congressional cricus aimed at the Nov. 2006 Congressional elections, it never had much of a chance.
43 killed in one day, at the height of a supposed “security clampdown” which has been easily matched by a ramp-up of violence. The joint US-Iraqi “offensive” is a military and political failure. Various anti-occupation forces are trying to “humiliate” or defeat the US-Iraqi joint operation to “control Baghdad” by proving that this is impossible. I think the soldier abductions are part of this:
At the time of the attack, the American soldiers were at a traffic control checkpoint on the edge of Karagol. According to the Iraqis, the checkpoint was guarded by about a dozen American soldiers who had arrived in three Humvees.
The checkpoint came under fire from insurgents operating from the fruit groves that line the road. The Americans in two of the Humvees took off in pursuit as the insurgents retreated into the groves, possibly to lure them in, the Iraqis said, leaving one Humvee and only three or four American soldiers at the checkpoint.
The checkpoint then came under attack from another direction by a group of seven or eight guerrillas, wearing kaffiyehs over their faces and black track suits, the Iraqis said. At least one of them carried a heavy machine gun, and two of them carried rocket-propelled grenades.
Minutes after the two Americans were taken away, a team of Americans arrived and began searching door to door in the area, the Iraqis said. By Saturday morning, the search had intensified, with soldiers scouring the area, helicopters surveying the landscape from above and divers going into canals, the American military said in a statement.
“The Americans are going house to house, detaining any men they find,” said Yusef Abdul Nasir, who lives in Jurf Al Sakhar, a village next to Karagol. He said he had heard rumors that the soldiers were being held in Jurf Al Sakhar.
Mr. Nasir said the Americans were threatening to hold the men they had detained unless the two soldiers were turned over. There was no way to independently verify Mr. Nasir’s report.
Iraqi prisoners walk past a U.S. soldiers inside the Abu Ghraib prison compound, shortly before they are released, as another batch of 200 prisoners were freed under a national reconciliation plan announced by Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki last week to free a total of 2,500 inmates, in Baghdad, June 15, 2006. (IRAQ)
The 2 US soldiers, presumably abducted south of Baghdad late Friday, are still missing. I hope they deserted.
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