Global Policy Forum

By Solomon Moore

American bombers and fighter aircraft dropped 40,000 pounds of bombs on suspected militant hide-outs, storehouses and defensive positions in the southern outskirts of Baghdad on Thursday, the United States military said. In one of the largest airstrikes in recent months, two B-1 and four F-16 aircraft dropped 38 bombs within 10 minutes near the Latifiya district south of Baghdad, the military said. The airstrikes were accompanied by a large Iraqi and American ground assault. The air attack was part of a nationwide joint offensive that includes a continuing sweep in Diyala Province, north of Baghdad, and raids Thursday in Salahuddin Province, northwest of the capital, between Samarra and Ramadi.

The offensive took place as attacks against Iraqi security forces, American soldiers and Sunni Arab militias allied with the United States increased in the last few weeks. A series of suicide bombings, assassinations and car bombings has threatened to reverse the downward trend in violence, especially in Baghdad, where dozens of people have been killed since the new year. Sixteen Americans have died this year, nine of them on Tuesday and Wednesday as soldiers tried to drive Sunni Arab insurgents out of their sanctuaries in Diyala Province. Despite the high death toll, American soldiers have met surprisingly little overall resistance during the sweep, and military officials suspect that insurgents were tipped off beforehand. The American airstrikes on Thursday took place in an area densely blanketed with tall grasses and palm trees and rutted with irrigation canals. United States military officials have identified it as a haven for militants linked to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the largely homegrown Sunni insurgent group that American intelligence says is foreign-led and now represents a serious threat to stability in Iraq. The air attacks hit more than 40 targets, the military said. Iraqi Army officials said they were certain that the airstrikes had killed many insurgents but added that they were unable to conduct an official body count by nightfall. Dozens of suspected insurgents were detained during the assault, Iraqi Army officials said.

Residents of the area said they saw other insurgents speeding along remote roads on motorcycles, and trucks with mortar rocket launchers and rifles. Several days of sporadic bombing around Latifiya and Arab Jabour culminated around 8 a.m. Thursday in concentrated airstrikes near the two towns, according to Abu Amna, a tribal chief who lives in the area. "There was a big sound of explosions," he said in a phone interview. Mr. Amna is a leader of one of hundreds of groups known as Concerned Local Citizens, a Sunni Arab tribal movement that has turned against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. "People began to flee the area after the air assault," he said, because joint forces began a comprehensive raid after the bombing. Col. Terry Ferrell, commander of the Second Brigade, Third Infantry Division, said that an extraordinary amount of firepower was necessary to clear areas that American forces had long neglected. During a house search in Diyala on Wednesday, six American soldiers and an interpreter of unknown nationality were killed when insurgents detonated a bomb inside the structure.

Thursday's bombing run was intended to avoid that kind of trap. Colonel Ferrell said that insurgents near Latifiya and Arab Jabour had built elaborate defenses, including roads lined with powerful bombs, booby-trapped houses and ambush positions. "Specifically, we were looking to clear the ground against known targets and threats that could harm our soldiers, the Concerned Local Citizens and the Iraqi security forces," Colonel Ferrell said. "We were targeting caches and improvised explosives devices." The bombing run was also intended to dislodge insurgents from their hiding places, said Maj. Gen. Uthman Al-Ghanimi, commander of the Eighth Division of the Iraqi Army, which provided the bulk of the ground forces for the attack. The general said that about 850 Iraqi soldiers and 150 American soldiers took part in the assault.

One measure of the sophistication of the insurgents, many of whom are former Iraqi military officers, is that their hide-outs and weapons caches were placed in a remote area between two Iraqi Army divisions, General Ghanimi said. American and Iraqi officials said that the airstrikes destroyed several weapons caches, a car bomb and two houses rigged with explosives. During the air assault, United States helicopters carried Iraqi and American soldiers into the area to conduct a ground sweep and to block fleeing suspected insurgents, according to another high-ranking Iraqi Army officer who declined to be identified because he is not allowed to speak to the news media. American military officials praised the tribal militias for providing information on insurgent locations, weapons stores and ambush sites. Sunni Arab militias, about 80,000 members strong throughout Iraq, have brought relative calm to many areas in western Anbar Province and Baghdad that had long resisted security operations by American and Iraqi forces. Ammar Falah, another tribal militia member near Latifiya, said that he and his fellow tribesmen had been fighting Qaeda insurgents since last month. "We clashed with Al Qaeda two weeks ago, and with American help we were able to regain control of two towns," Mr. Falah said. "We lost two of our men. After we took control of these towns, we held a celebration and we were able to bring back 150 out of 200 families that had been displaced by Al Qaeda." Mr. Falah said that civilian casualties in his area were avoided Thursday because American forces instructed his group to warn residents to leave the area. Mr. Falah said that Thursday's heavy bombardment followed days of more limited airstrikes. "Ten days ago three women and two children were killed by mistake by American bombings targeting Al Qaeda," he said. justify"> Um Yasir, a 50-year-old homemaker, said that several bombs landed about 500 yards from her home while she was doing chores. Um Yasir, who said that hers was one of only three families who had not been driven from her village by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, said she fled with her children and grandchildren to a relative's house and watched American bombs slam into nearby palm groves. "I saw smoke coming from the bombed area and I saw gunmen moving out of the area," she said. "They were carrying their guns."

In other violence, improvised explosives killed two people in downtown Baghdad, and a car bomb killed one person in east Baghdad. At least 11 people were wounded in the two incidents. Iraqi police officers found three bodies in Baghdad and one in the southern city of Hilla. Iraqi police officials said they killed a suspected insurgent 50 miles north of Baquba and wounded another man as he tried to plant an improvised bomb. In the northern city of Kirkuk a roadside bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded another soldier. And in the holy city of Karbala, Shiite pilgrims continued to arrive for Ashura, an annual observance of the death of Imam Hussein Ali, a moment that cemented the birth of Shiism.