Operation Steel Curtain Launched Along Syrian Border
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James Joyner | Saturday, November 5, 2005 |
U.S. forces have launched yet another “major offensive” in an attempt to staunch the flow of terrorists across the Syrian border into Iraq.
U.S. Launches Major Offensive in Iraq (AP)
American and Iraqi forces launched a major offensive Saturday near the porous Syrian border aimed at destroying al-Qaida in Iraq’s ability to smuggle foreign fighters, money and equipment through the region. The U.S. military also announced that two soldiers were killed by insurgents in other areas of Iraq on Friday. The offensive in the town of Husaybah of about 2,500 U.S. forces and 1,000 Iraqis â including local forces acting as scouts â will remove insurgents from the western province of Anbar ahead of Iraq’s parliamentary election on Dec. 15, the U.S. military said.
[...]
The military statement said al-Qaida in Iraq, the country’s most feared insurgent group, has used the Husaybah region for its smuggling operations. The military also said that insurgents continue to threaten residents of Husaybah who work with U.S. or Iraqi forces.
The offensive is part of a larger ongoing U.S. military operation designed to deny al-Qaida in Iraq the ability to operate in the Euphrates River valley, which stretches through Anbar province, and to establish a joint permanent security presence along the Syrian border. “Operation Steel Curtain marks the first large-scale employment of multiple battalion-sized units of Iraqi army forces in combined operations with coalition forces in the last year,” the military said.
Stopping the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq would certainly be helpful. Let’s hope this one is more successful in that goal than Operation Iron Fist, Operation Matador, and other operations named after comic book characters and bullfighters.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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What's the difference between an Iron Curtain and a Steel Curtain?
I guess the former is more brittle and can fail quickly. The other was the Pittsburg defense.
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