Troops to take slow, deliberate approach in tracking down enemy in Iraqi village
By Les Neuhaus, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, August 16, 2007
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ABU KARMAH, Iraq — A mission launched as part of Operation Lightning Hammer was moving at a slow, steady pace, with some dozen suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters arrested, officials said.
The operation began early Tuesday morning with two U.S. Army battalions from the 1st Cavalry and 82nd Airborne divisions surrounding the village of Abu Karmah in what was called Operation Pericles. As many as 16,000 Iraqi and U.S. troops are taking part in the overall mission in Diyala province.
By late Tuesday evening, approximately a dozen men had been arrested, according to U.S. Army Capt. Gregory Sakimura.
“We’re moving at a very slow and deliberate pace in this operation,†said Sakimura, 35, of Mechanicsburg, Pa. “This is typical of what we have seen in the past. The enemy will go underground and blend into the population, so it requires a lot of detective work.â€
Two schools, reported by Army officials to have been rigged with explosives, were destroyed by bombs dropped from U.S. aircraft around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Also on Wednesday morning, thousands of members of the Iraqi Army’s 5th Division moved into Abu Karmah.
Col. David Sutherland, commander of U.S. and Iraqi forces in Diyala, said on Monday the operation targeted al-Qaida militants who had fled the U.S. military’s earlier offensive in Baqouba during June and July. Many of those fighters had moved to villages like Abu Karmah, officials said….FOR FULL STORY…Please go to:Stars and Stripes