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11/05/2005:

"US launches new offensive in Iraq"

Several thousand US and Iraqi troops have begun a new operation on Iraq's Syrian border against militants from the al-Qaeda in Iraq group.
Some 2,500 American marines and other troops, as well as about 1,000 Iraqi government soldiers, are deployed around Husayba, the US military said.

It is the first time Iraqi troops have been used on a major scale, it added.

Operation Steel Curtain comes after two offensives against militants last month in the same province, Anbar.

Its aim is to "restore security along the Iraqi-Syrian border and destroy the al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist network operating throughout Husayba", the US military said in its statement.
bbc.co.uk

"Its aim" is to provoke a pretext for war.