Iraqi Troops, Tribesmen Kill 50 suspected Insurgents

By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service
March 2, 2007

The Iraqis led an operation, in combination with Sunni tribesmen, in an especially violent movement on a Sunni insurgent stronghold in Western Iraq yesterday according to Iraqi police officials. The clash, which was unusually fierce for Iraqi-led operations, ended with around 50 suspected insurgents dead and another 80 captured. Originally, the insurgents attacked a village near Fallujah, and the battle ended 6 hours later. This all comes as part of the US military’s movement to align itself with dozens of tribal sheiks to drive out the Sunni al-Qaeda in Iraq from the vast desert. In other movements, the US is also working on targeted raids, but not yet an established presence, in Sadr City where a good majority of the Mahdi Army reside. Mahdi is led by Moqtada as-Sadr, an anti-American cleric who at the same time supports al-Maliki. Also, two Marines were killed in an unrelated incident while two other service members were injured when their Army OH-58 Kiowa helicopter had a hard landing due to mechanical difficulty.