APPOINTMENT PROCESS:

U.S, Iraqi Forces Reclaim Much of City of Samarra (Thomas S. Mulligan, October 2, 2004, LA Times)

U.S. and Iraqi forces fought block by block Friday into the center of rebel-held Samarra in what is likely to be the first in a series of major attacks to seize and stabilize insurgent hot spots before the January election.

By nightfall, Iraqi officials said, the combined force — several thousand troops of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, the Iraqi army and Iraqi national guard — had secured about three-quarters of the city, including government buildings, police headquarters, a pharmaceuticals factory and an important religious shrine.

Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, is in the Sunni Triangle, a hotbed of resistance north and west of Baghdad that is home to many Sunni Muslim supporters of the Baathist regime of ousted President Saddam Hussein.

U.S. and Iraqi officials said they had killed more than 100 insurgents and captured 37 in the fighting, but hospital officials put the number of deaths around 20. One American soldier was killed and four were injured, military authorities said. Conflicting casualty estimates are common in Iraq, especially in insurgent strongholds where it is almost impossible for foreign media to operate.

Officials at the Pentagon and National Security Council confirmed that the Samarra offensive was the beginning of a campaign to secure Iraq's most dangerous cities before the elections. U.S. and Iraqi officials insist that balloting will take place throughout the country, despite Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's comments last week that some parts of Iraq might have to be excluded.

Other likely military targets before the election include Ramadi and Fallouja, two other Sunni Triangle cities west of Baghdad, and the sprawling Sadr City district of Baghdad, which is a stronghold of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr.

Shouldn't pundits be hitting the button that spits out a story about how it will all resemble Stalingrad and alienate the populace?

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 2, 2004 7:58 AM