First phase of Diyala fight about over

Reuters:

U.S. forces believe the initial combat phase of a major offensive to clear al Qaeda from the Iraqi city of Baquba is nearly complete and any militants left could be confronted in the next 24 hours.

The operation in and around Baquba, capital of volatile Diyala province, is a major part of one of the biggest combined offensives by U.S. and Iraqi forces against the Sunni Islamist group in Iraq since the invasion of the country in 2003.

"We will either make enemy contact quickly, or we won't," Colonel Steve Townsend, commander of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, told Reuters and another news agency late on Saturday.

"My company commanders' gut feel is that there won't be a big fight here," he said after a briefing late on Saturday with combat captains in the bombed-out remains of a building, once used by al Qaeda as a clinic, on Baquba's outskirts.

Townsend said latest intelligence indicated some fighters were still inside an American cordon, which has been steadily tightened since the operation was launched on Tuesday, cutting off options for the militants to escape.

"They don't have any choice but to fight ... or put down their weapons and melt into the population," Townsend said.

"The fight so far has gone a little easier than I expected. That does not mean there isn't any fight left in them."

The campaign in Diyala, north of Baghdad, as well as offensives in other regions around the capital, is expected to last several weeks.

U.S. forces have came under sporadic attack as they work through Baquba's west and have also been hampered by networks of booby-trapped houses and deeply buried roadside bombs.

Barriers and checkpoints, manned by Iraqi security forces, will be put up around three of the most troubled districts in west Baquba to prevent al Qaeda slipping back into the city that they had declared the capital of the Islamic State of Iraq.

...

The enemy again ran in the face of superior force, but was force to leave behind some of it operatives who have been killed or captured. Much of its infrastructure devoted to protecting its former sanctuary has been destroyed. Most of its IEDs and booby traps have had no effect on the large operation. They may have had some effect on a small unit trying to penetrate their hide outs, but this force was so large and the intelligence was so good that their efforts were hardly a speed bump.