U.S. Steps Up Military Operations Against Insurgents

In response to the increasingly bloody attacks that have killed 37 U.S. soldiers this month, the military warned it would intensify operations against centers of resistance.

Though just ten days into November, it has already become the deadliest month for U.S. forces since President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1. Most of the violence has occurred within the so-called Sunni Triangle, an area north and west of Baghdad believed to be a home base for anti-coalition fighters and Saddam Hussein loyalists.

Early Saturday, F-16 jets dropped three bombs in and around Tikrit and coalition troops swept through the city, destroying several buildings the United States believed to be used by insurgents.

“This is to remind the town that we have teeth and claws and we will use them,” Lt. Col. Steve Russell, commander of an American battalion in Tikrit, said, according to wire reports. “We are targeting those areas where we have had attacks on coalition forces. We want to eliminate those threats.”

U.S. troops also detained about 40 people for unspecified offenses in overnight patrols around Tikrit and seized nearly 1,000 rockets and artillery shells during raids in Tikrit and other towns nearby, said military spokeswoman Maj. Josslyn Aberle of the 4th Infantry Division on Monday.

Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, on Saturday met with mayors and tribal leaders of the Anbar province, located within the Sunni Triangle region, to try to bring an end to the violence. Abizaid cited Fallujah, a city of the Anbar province, as a “hot area” and warned local leaders that if the city refused to assist in the rebuilding process, there “might be another policy,” Fallujah Mayor Taha Bedawi, who attended the meeting, told the Associated Press Monday.

Abizaid did not say what the new measures could entail, but cautioned leaders that “irresponsible behavior such as explosions and strikes against coalition forces are prohibited and we will take measures. We have the capabilities and equipment,” Bedawi told the AP.

Hours after the meeting, U.S. warplanes dropped three 500-pound bombs on sites near Fallujah.

Lt. Col. George Krivo told Reuters the military has “picked up the intensity of our offensive operations,” particularly concentrating troops in areas west of Baghdad.

Additionally, in northern Iraq — a region that had been safer than the Sunni Triangle — three unidentified gunmen armed with AK-47s in Mosul opened fire on the car of a local oil official, Mohammed Ahmed Zibari, wounding him and killing his son. Though there have been numerous attacks on Iraq’s oil infrastructure, the shooting appears to be the first assassination attempt on officials from an oil firm.

“Definitely foreign regime loyalists are responsible for this. I have no personal enemies, no tribal or family problems, and I’m not a member of any political party,” Zibari, a distribution manager for the Oil Distribution Co., told Reuters from his hospital bed.

In the wake of the coalition’s weekend offensive and new attacks, Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, on Monday warned local and foreign fighters would intensify attacks in coming months.

“We’re going to have increased attacks and increased terrorism because the terrorists can see the reconstruction dynamic is moving in our direction,” Bremer told The Times newspaper of London.

“It will be more of a problem in the months ahead unless the intelligence gets better,” Bremer said, adding that he suspected hundreds of fighters from Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia had infiltrated into Iraq.

But Bremer insisted that the escalating violence would not drive coalition forces from Iraq. He said such a move could have “fatal” consequences for Iraq and the Middle East. He noted that before leaving, the region’s best democracy would be established in Iraq.

In a separate incident, in Sadr City, a predominantly Shiite district of Baghdad, Muhanad al-Kaadi, the head of the district’s U.S.-appointed municipal council, was shot and killed Sunday during an altercation with U.S. military guards posted at the council’s office.

According to a military spokesman, al-Kaadi attacked one of the guards, tried to grab his gun and then was shot in the leg by a second soldier in response. Al-Kaadi later died from the gunshot wound. Residents said al-Kaadi never attacked or lunged for the weapon of the U.S. soldier when he was shot. The U.S. military said the incident is still under investigation.