NOT AFAR ENOUGH:

Iraqi, U.S. Troops Sweep Into Tal Afar (JACOB SILBERBERG, 9/10/05, Associated Press)

In the Tal Afar offensive, which had been expected for weeks, coalition forces faced several hundred lightly armed insurgents in the largely deserted city, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad and about 60 miles east of the Syrian border.

There was heavy gunfire in the Sarai district, the oldest part of the city and the major insurgent stronghold.

"I can see why the terrorists chose this place for a fight, it's like a big funnel of death," Sgt. William Haslett of Rocklin, Calif., said of the twisting streets and alleys in the old city.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced the 2 a.m. start of the offensive in a statement issued early Saturday. At a news conference later, he said the insurgents had been trying "to isolate Tal Afar from the political process as we are preparing for the referendum on the draft constitution."

Tal Afar residents were largely Turkomen, with ethnic and cultural ties to Turkey to the north. They are mostly Sunni Muslims but had been governed since the ouster of
Saddam Hussein by a U.S.-backed Shiite Muslim city government and police force.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said 48 insurgents had been captured so far, along with mortars and communications gear. He said Iraqi troops had suffered two wounded and no deaths.

Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi said that in the past two days, 141 "terrorists" had been killed and 197 wounded. Five government soldiers died and three were injured, he said.

Al-Dulaimi said 11 Iraqi army battalions and three battalions of paramilitary police were engaged in the offensive, along with three battalions of U.S. troops, and promised Iraqi forces would broaden the offensive against insurgents north and west of Baghdad, right up to the Syrian border.

The Ba'athist/alQaedists can never win precisely because to take so much as a town is to become an easy target.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 10, 2005 6:21 AM