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US and Iraqis begin huge operation in Tall Afar

Washington Post:

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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.

Set on an old smuggling trail that winds though pastoral plains about 40 miles from the Syrian border, Tall Afar is a key logistics hub for insurgents operating across northern Iraq, military officials say. Like the string of towns a few hundred miles to the south in Anbar province, where Marines have launched a half-dozen offensives since early May, Tall Afar is considered a staging point for operations essential to sustaining an insurgency, such as trafficking of men and arms and providing safe accommodations for fighters.

The story shows the ineffectiveness of the enemy's primary weapon, IED's when trying to stop US forces from taking an objective. It also demonstrates the US's force to space problem in the region, since a similar operation was mounted a year ago to accomplish the same thing. What has changed since the enemy went back to Tall Afar is that half the population of the town voted with their feet and left. It is a good story by an embed and worth the read.

Bill Roggio again has good commentary on the events in Tall Afar, including this:

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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.