New Diyala offensive should keep al Qaeda off balance

CNN:

About 26,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces are taking part in an offensive against al Qaeda in Iraq in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

The operation, Lightning Hammer II, is an extension of an earlier operation in Diyala province.

About 14,000 Iraqi security forces stationed throughout Nineveh province and 12,000 U.S. soldiers are conducting the operation, which started Wednesday evening.

The military said the operation "follows Lightning Hammer I ... to deny al Qaeda safe haven in the provinces" of Salaheddin, Nineveh, Diyala, and Kirkuk.

The military said the original Operation Lightning Hammer -- August 13 to September 1 -- ousted militants from the Diyala River valley, northeast of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province.

"Al Qaeda cells were driven from Baquba in Diyala due to Operation Arrowhead Ripper in June and July and then pursued in the Diyala River valley during Operation Lighting Hammer in August," Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of Task Force Lightning and Multinational Division-North.

Also, a U.S. airstrike on the Washash neighborhood in west Baghdad killed at least 14 Iraqis, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said Thursday.

The Washash section of the capital is a stronghold of the Mehdi Army militia, which is loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The U.S. airstrike comes at the time al-Sadr has ordered the militants to suspend operations for six months.

...

We know al Qaeda would like to do a PR blitz of attacks leading up to Gen. Petraeus' testimony before Congress in order to give the Democrats some talking points for retreat. This offensive will have the effect of disrupting them in what has become their last remaining base of operations. I expect that any al Qaeda attack will in in areas outside of Diyala and Anbar. Mosul and Tal Afar are likely targets and Baghdad if they can get access to a market where they can engage in mass murder of non combatants. Al Qaeda's situation in Iraq has become desperate and their best hope has become a Democrat ordered retreat, but the Democrats desperation for defeat is also getting ever more desperate.

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