Attacks against al Qaeda continue in Iraq

AP/Houston Chronicle:

U.S. bombers and jet fighters unleashed 40,000 pounds of explosives during a 10-minute airstrike today, flattening what the military called al-Qaida in Iraq safe havens on the southern outskirts of the capital.

The strikes, carried out above approaching troops, was part of Operation Phantom Phoenix, a nationwide campaign launched Tuesday against al-Qaida in Iraq.

A military statement said two B-1 bombers and four F-16 fighters dropped the bombs on 40 targets in Arab Jabour in 10 strikes. Al-Qaida fighters are believed to control Arab Jabour, a Sunni district lined with citrus groves and scarred by daily violence.

"Thirty-eight bombs were dropped within the first 10 minutes, with a total tonnage of 40,000 pounds," the statement said.

The attack came a day after the U.S. military reported that nine American soldiers were killed north of the capital in the first two days of a new offensive.

Many militants have fled U.S. and Iraqi forces massing north of Baghdad in Diyala province. Like Arab Jabour, Diyala is an agricultural area of palm and citrus groves that has defied the trend toward lower violence.

The campaign's scope is nationwide but is mainly focused on gaining control of Diyala and its most important city, Baqouba, which al-Qaida has declared the capital of its self-styled Islamic caliphate.

Six soldiers were killed and four were wounded Wednesday in a booby-trapped house in Diyala, the U.S. command said. It also announced that three U.S. soldiers were killed and two wounded in an attack Tuesday in Salahuddin province, north of Diyala.

The toll marked some of the deadliest days for U.S. forces in Iraq since last fall. For all December, 23 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq.

The blows against U.S. troops came as extremists tried to stay ahead of the military advance. Al-Qaida fighters retreated north from Diyala, presumably to Salahuddin, the top U.S. commander in northern Iraq, Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, told reporters in Baghdad on Wednesday.

"Operational security in Iraq is a problem," he said, noting that the Iraqi army uses unsecured cell phones and radios. "I'm sure there is active leaking of communication."

Hertling said his troops had killed 20 to 30 insurgents in the first two days of the operation. It was unknown how many were killed in Thursday's strike.

Only Baghdad province has been deadlier than Diyala the past two years, according to an Associated Press count.

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They need to get a handle on the operational security issue if they are going to stay ahead of enemy operatives. The house bomb in Diyala is similar to ones found in earlier operations there and should have been anticipated. That they had time to rig it is another indication of an opsec failures. If there was a house bomb in the Baghdad attack, it did not survive the ordinance from the air attack.