Troops surround Iraqi rebel bastion as Qaeda claims bombings
US and Iraqi forces were surrounding the Sunni rebel bastion of Ramadi with new checkpoints on all the town’s entry and exit roads as Al-Qaeda said it carried out Baghdad bombings that killed 36 people.
A US military spokesman said security forces surrounded Ramadi, capital of the western Al-Anbar province, in a bid to bottle up the insurgents.
He said extra checkpoints were set up “to restrict the flow of insurgents, but citizens will still be able to enter and leave the city.”
“This is just one part of a long-term plan to restore stability in Ramadi,” he told AFP.
He said the operation was “part of the continuous operations that the coalition forces and Iraqi forces have been conducting for several months.”
But on Sunday the forces were “getting more into it and focusing on multiple sites used by the insurgents to plan and conduct terrorist attacks and store weapons.”
The operation was being conducted jointly by US soldiers, marines and Iraqi troops, with the US military’s 1st Brigade of the 1st armored division acting as lead unit.
He said the forces had set up assembly areas for displaced people from the town to the east and west of Ramadi, but added: “We have no idea how many people have left their homes.”
Earlier Sunday the military insisted that it had neither launched “any major operation as Fallujah” nor deployed additional troops to the restive city after the BBC reported overnight troop movements on its southern outskirts.
sgnews.yahoo.com