15 July 2008 (Azzaman)

ens of thousands of marines and Iraqi troops are being deployed for yet another massive military operation to subdue the Province of Diyala, of which Baaquba is the capital.

The imminent operation will be the second major offensive in a year.

In July last year, the troops mounted one of their largest military operations in the country ostensibly to flush out gunmen and fighters of al-Qaeda from Diyala.

That operation was reported to have caused massive damage to Baaquba and other towns in the Diyala Province and unspecified number of civilian casualties.

Residents have not yet recovered from the ferocity of last year’s July operation only to be warned that another large-scale military offensive was in the offing.

Last year’s operation was claimed by both U.S. and Iraq officials to have been a ‘feat’ in military terms.

Officials declared it ‘a resounding success’, saying that the troops had defeated Qaeda and other groups blamed for mounting violence in the province.

The repeat of the operation and on such a scale signals that the U.S. has still a long way to go to defeat   Qaeda in Iraq.

It also indicates that achievements on the security front are hard to sustain.

In the months since last July’s offensive, Iraqi and U.S. troops carried out “numerous operations in the province,” said Lt. Gen. Abdulkarim Khalaf.

Khalaf said the forthcoming offensive would only target ‘al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia’.

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