U.S. Army Begins Offensive Against Al-Qaeda in Iraq (Update6)

June 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. military began an air and ground offensive against suspected al-Qaeda insurgents northeast of Baghdad involving about 10,000 American soldiers. A bombing in the Iraqi capital killed 75 people, the Associated Press said.

The operation targeting al-Qaeda, codenamed ``Arrowhead Ripper,'' began with nighttime air strikes in Baquba and continued as ground forces, backed by helicopters, killed about 22 insurgents in and around the city, the U.S. military said.

About 30,000 American soldiers have deployed to Iraq since the start of the year to combat sectarian violence and attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces, taking the total number of U.S. military personnel in the country to about 150,000. Today's operation is intended ``to destroy al-Qaeda influences in this province and eliminate their threat against the people,'' Brigadier General Mick Bednarek said in an e-mailed statement.

``Now that the entirety of the five combat brigades as part of the `surge' are here, we can implement the counterinsurgency strategy as it was designed,'' Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said in an e-mailed statement from Baghdad. ``We have forces in the belts around Baghdad and Baghdad proper in order to find the insurgents, terrorists and extremists and capture or kill them.''

The operation in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, is in its ``opening stages'' and involves the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division and the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, according to the statement.

Public Executions

Al-Qaeda has conducted public executions in Baquba's main square and sought to enforce Islamic law, AP reported. A new U.S. operations center in Diyala province will try to coordinate police and army operations, help Iraqi ministries provide services, and ``build the trust and confidence of the people in the provincial government,'' Bednarek said.

Today's truck bombing in Baghdad, in a commercial district near a Shiite Muslim mosque, wounded more than 200 people, AP reported.

A U.S. soldier was killed in a small-arms attack on a patrol in eastern Baghdad yesterday, the military said. The number of U.S. military deaths has risen every month since intensified security operations in and around Baghdad began in February.

About 1,200 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division pushed into Baghdad's southeastern Jabour district over the weekend in an operation codenamed ``Marne Torch'' to stop insurgents from moving bomb-making equipment into the capital, the military said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

Too Dangerous

Jet fighters dropped four ``precision-guided bombs'' on June 16 to support the operation, named after a U.S.-British offensive in North Africa in World War II.

More than 500 U.S. service members have died in Iraq this year, bringing the total since the 2003 invasion to 3,517, including 2,888 who were killed in action. More than 25,000 have been wounded, 11,667 of them so seriously that they couldn't return to duty, according to the Department of Defense Web site.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Security Council last week that the U.S. security surge is failing and that the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad has become too dangerous for UN workers.