thedrifter
12-01-05, 06:19 AM
Rebels Briefly Control Central Ramadi in Presence of Marines
By Ellen Knickmeyer and Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 1, 2005; 7:12 AM
BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 -- The city of Ramadi and U.S. forces there came under attack from about 250 armed rebels Thursday who then briefly took over the center of the city despite the presence of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops and Marines.
The apparent target of the attack was a meeting between Marine officers and tribal leaders who support resistance to the U.S. presence, part of a groundbreaking series of contacts that got underway earlier this week.
The armed men reportedly set up roadblocks at roads leading in and out of the city and conducted their own patrols. They fired mortars at the building where the meeting was taking place as well as at U.S. bases in the area.
Authorities said U.S. troops entered the town in force about 11:00 a.m. and many of the armed men slipped away.
Al Qaeda in Iraq, which distributed leaflets saying it was taking over the city, said that about six of its men had been killed. There were no immediate reports on other casualties.
Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, a Sunni Arab stronghold that includes the city of Fallujah, which is about 40 miles to the west, and has been the scene of frequent combat between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The military has a fortified garrison in Ramadi. Last week the military announced a major "disruption operation" in Ramadi involving approximately 550 Iraqi Army soldiers and U.S. Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team attached to the 2nd Marine Division.
Operation Tigers, as the military called it in a press release, was described by officials as the fourth in a series of disruption operations "executed to set the conditions for a successful Dec. 15 election in Ramadi."
The military said that since November 16, Iraqi and U.S. forces had killed or detained "numerous terrorists" and seized several weapons caches, including surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets, mortar rounds, artillery rounds, hand grenades, landmines, small arms, small-arms ammunition and bomb-making equipment.
In other developments, two U.S. service members died of wounds suffered in combat and a Marine died in a non-hostile traffic accident, the U.S. military said Thursday. That raised the U.S. death toll for November to at least 84.
The victims included a Task Force Baghdad soldier who died of gunshot wounds received Wednesday and a Marine who died of wounds suffered the same day in Fallujah, the U.S. command said. The traffic accident involving a Marine from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing occurred near Camp Taqaddum, 45 miles west of Baghdad, another military statement said.
Barbash reported from Washington.
Ellie
By Ellen Knickmeyer and Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 1, 2005; 7:12 AM
BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 -- The city of Ramadi and U.S. forces there came under attack from about 250 armed rebels Thursday who then briefly took over the center of the city despite the presence of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops and Marines.
The apparent target of the attack was a meeting between Marine officers and tribal leaders who support resistance to the U.S. presence, part of a groundbreaking series of contacts that got underway earlier this week.
The armed men reportedly set up roadblocks at roads leading in and out of the city and conducted their own patrols. They fired mortars at the building where the meeting was taking place as well as at U.S. bases in the area.
Authorities said U.S. troops entered the town in force about 11:00 a.m. and many of the armed men slipped away.
Al Qaeda in Iraq, which distributed leaflets saying it was taking over the city, said that about six of its men had been killed. There were no immediate reports on other casualties.
Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, a Sunni Arab stronghold that includes the city of Fallujah, which is about 40 miles to the west, and has been the scene of frequent combat between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces.
The military has a fortified garrison in Ramadi. Last week the military announced a major "disruption operation" in Ramadi involving approximately 550 Iraqi Army soldiers and U.S. Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team attached to the 2nd Marine Division.
Operation Tigers, as the military called it in a press release, was described by officials as the fourth in a series of disruption operations "executed to set the conditions for a successful Dec. 15 election in Ramadi."
The military said that since November 16, Iraqi and U.S. forces had killed or detained "numerous terrorists" and seized several weapons caches, including surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets, mortar rounds, artillery rounds, hand grenades, landmines, small arms, small-arms ammunition and bomb-making equipment.
In other developments, two U.S. service members died of wounds suffered in combat and a Marine died in a non-hostile traffic accident, the U.S. military said Thursday. That raised the U.S. death toll for November to at least 84.
The victims included a Task Force Baghdad soldier who died of gunshot wounds received Wednesday and a Marine who died of wounds suffered the same day in Fallujah, the U.S. command said. The traffic accident involving a Marine from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing occurred near Camp Taqaddum, 45 miles west of Baghdad, another military statement said.
Barbash reported from Washington.
Ellie