June 15, 2006
BONANZA:
Hundreds of raids carried out since al-Zarqawi's death (KIM GAMEL, 6/15/06, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
American and Iraqi forces have carried out 452 raids since last week's killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and 104 insurgents were killed during those actions, the U.S. military said Thursday.Posted by Orrin Judd at June 15, 2006 9:23 AM[Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad,] said 255 of the raids were joint operations, while 143 were carried out by Iraqi forces alone.
Well, of course. Why stop playing Whack-A-Mole when someone else keeps putting in the quarters?
Posted by: Jay at June 15, 2006 11:21 AMI don't want to make too much of this, but Zarqawi was killed on Wednesday, 6/7, three soldiers were killed in Iraq on Wednesday, three on Thursday and five on Friday, 6/9. No coalition soldiers have been killed since Friday, 6/9. Even not counting today (it's 7:30 pm Baghdad time as I post this), five days without a coalition death is, I'm pretty sure, the longest period of time without a fatality since the invasion.
(One reason not to read too much into this is that more soldiers than normal have been wounded this week.)
Posted by: David Cohen at June 15, 2006 11:33 AMAnd unfortunately the Pentagon has now announced another three deaths, although the cause is as yet unknown.
Posted by: David Cohen at June 15, 2006 2:10 PMThat should not come as a surprise, given that we are involved in large scale offensive operations in both the Baghdad area and Ramadi. It sounds to me like a major roll-up, if not outright mop-up. We'll take some losses, but the "insurgency" ... especially the foreign jihadis ... will lose thousands.
Posted by: ghostcat at June 15, 2006 2:37 PM