www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/05/09/iraq.main -> www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/05/09/iraq.main/
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- US forces have launched an offensive against "in surgents and foreign fighters" near Iraq's border with Syria, killing at least 75 of them in the first 24 hours of the operation, the US milit ary said Monday. According to the military, coalition and Marine Corps aircraft and forces from the US Army, Navy and Marines are involved in the fighting in Ir aq's Anbar province. "The operation is currently on the area north of the Euphrates River, in the Al Jazirah Desert. The region is a known smuggling route and sanctua ry for foreign fighters," the military said in a statement. "The offensive is aimed at eliminating insurgents and foreign fighters fr om the area," the statement said. Earlier Monday, a suicide car bomb detonated at a police checkpoint in so uthern Baghdad, killing at least four people -- two police and two civil ians -- and wounding eight others, police said. According to police, the attack took place at 9:10 am (1:10 am EDT) w hen the vehicle -- with a driver and two passengers -- pulled up to the checkpoint. Government appointments Insurgent attacks have risen in recent weeks even as the Shiite and Kurd- dominated parliament reached out to Sunnni Arabs on Sunday, approving fo ur more of their number to serve in the government. The ministries of defense, industry and human rights are to be headed by Sunnis, and a newly named deputy prime minister is a Sunni. The Oil Ministry will be headed by a Shiite, Ibrahim Bahrululum. Hashem al-Shibli, a Sunni who was tapped to be the minister of human righ ts, refused the post, saying he did not believe Cabinet positions should be allocated based on ethnic or religious affiliation. Last month, transitional Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced all 36 Cabinet positions in the new government -- some of them temporary. Th e new Cabinet members were sworn in one by one last Tuesday -- altogethe r 28.
Cabinet list) The transitional government's main goal is to write a constitution that m ust be put before voters in a referendum this year. But scores of people have been killed in a string of attacks since Iraq's Cabinet was sworn in on April 28. All three were killed by roadside bombs, the US military said. To date, 1,602 American forces have been killed since the US-led invasi on of Iraq in March 2003. In all, 1,780 coalition forces -- not counting Iraqi forces -- have been killed.
org, more than 2,000 Iraqi soldiers, police and guardsmen have bee n killed since US-led troops began working with Iraqis to build a secu rity force under the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003. The number of Iraqi civilians killed in the war remains unclear. org suggests that between 21,000 and 25,000 civilians have been confirmed killed. Aide's 'intelligence documents' found The US military said Sunday that an aide to terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarq awi had been captured by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad. US forces identified him as Ammar al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Abbas. He was responsible f or many recent suicide car bombings and an attack on Abu Ghraib prison i n April that wounded US troops and detainees at the facility, the mili tary said.
Full story) The military said al-Zubaydi was responsible for a string of car bombs in the Baghdad area on April 29. On that day, 12 explosions were reported in eight areas of the capital within a matter of hours. Twenty-three Iraqi security troops died across the city and 31 others wer e wounded, authorities said. At least one civilian died and dozens more were wounded.
Full story) Al-Zubaydi is not the same Abu Abbas who masterminded the terrorist hijac king of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985. That man, leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, was captured in Iraq in the early day s of the war and died in custody. Iraqi officials said "intelligence documents" seized at al-Zubaydi's home indicated he was preparing to assassinate a senior government official, who the officials did not identify. Al-Zubaydi confessed to supporting another suspected al-Zarqawi aide, Abu Omar al-Kurdi, captured in December, Iraqi officials said. The officials released a statement Sunday saying al-Zubaydi also confesse d to stealing 400 rockets and 720 cases of explosives from weaponry ware houses in Yusifiya in 2003. A US military statement said he told the Iraqis he gave al-Kurdi access to the stolen explosives, which he stockpiled on and near a farm in Yus ifiya. Tip leads to capture of 54 insurgents Another al-Zarqawi associate -- captured April 26 -- helped US and Iraq i forces kill six insurgents Sunday and capture another 54 in western Ir aq near the Syrian border, the US military said. The anti-insurgent operation took place near the Rawa region in the Anbar province north of Qaim, the military said. The region is a base for reb el attacks in Baghdad and Falluja. Information provided by al-Zarqawi associate Ghassan Muhammad Amin Husayn al-Rawi helped the operation, according to the military. During the mission, US and Iraqi "forces also destroyed car bombs, bomb -making material and two buildings that contained large weapons caches," the military said. Before his capture, al-Rawi "facilitated movement and meetings for al-Zar qawi in the Rawa region, facilitated movement of foreign fighters, and w as responsible for terrorist activity resulting in the murder of innocen t Iraqis," according to Saturday's announcement of his capture by the mi litary. Word of the raid came a day after US soldiers captured 33 suspected ter rorists, including two men described as "high value targets" in the Bagh dad area, the US military said. Other developments CTU Consulting Management said two of its employees were among 22 peopl e killed in a Baghdad suicide bombing on Saturday: Todd James Venetta of White Hall, Arkansas, and Brandon James Thomas of Salt Lake City, Utah. Venetta was a veteran of the US Marines who had previously served as a firefighter and paramedic in Russellville, Arkansas, the company said. Thomas, 27, was scheduled to return to the United States at the end of this month to prepare for deployment in Iraq with his Utah National Guar d unit, said his mother, Carol Young.
More on attack) A senior official with Iraq's Transportation Ministry, Zawba' Al-Ma'ini , was assassinated Sunday along with his driver as they left al-Ma'ini's home in Dora, on the northwest outskirts of Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
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