Iraq Report: Battling in the Belts

As U.S. and Iraqi Security Forces continue to push out into the Belts surrounding Baghdad, al Qaeda and insurgent groups are attempting to push back. Two significant attacks occurred in Salahadin and Diyala province, while U.S. and Iraqi forces press the raids on al Qaeda's network and the Iranian-backed Shia terror cells.

Iraqis serving in the Indigenous Counterinsurgency Force prepare
for a mission at their checkpoint in Al Namer, Aug. 19.

Salahadin

Southern Salahadin province, the region just north of Baghdad, remains a hot spot for al Qaeda and the insurgency. While reports last week of a massed al Qaeda attacks on Iraqi police stations in Samarra turned out to be false, about 30 al Qaeda fighters did attempt an attack in the city on August 27. U.S. and Iraqi forces successfully repelled the attack, and killing 12 and captured 14 enemy fighters in the process. Two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi civilians were killed during the fighting.

In Tikrit, the Iraqi Army captured "the leader of a network of terrorist cells linked to the former regime of Saddam Hussein," and his daughter, Raghid Hussein. Raghid finances the insurgent network while in exile in Jordan. Interpol issued an arrest warrant for Raghid on August 17, and for her role in financing the Iraqi insurgency, she has been placed on the list of America's 41 most wanted. Iraqi Army Scouts also captured a cell leader responsible for several assassination attempts, including the 2004 assassination of the governor of Ninewa province.

Diyala

U.S. and Iraqi forces maintain the pressure in Diyala province after successive U.S. and Iraqi offensives in Baqubah and the northern Diyala River Valley cleared al Qaeda from the region. The latest operation occurred in Khalis, where a joint U.S. and Iraqi Army air assault resulted in 33 al Qaeda operatives killed and three captured during a series of firefights and helicopter strikes in the city. Voices of Iraq reported that the bodies of an additional 11 al Qaeda fighters were found after the operation.

As U.S. and Iraqi forces operate in Baqubah and the north, al Qaeda in Iraq has struck in the south and east. Al Qaeda operatives dressed as Iraqi soldiers set up fake checkpoints and kidnapped nine civilians in Muqdadiyah. The government has imposed an indefinite curfew in the district while implementing a "new security plan." The city has been hit with a string of suicide attacks and assassinations.

Al Qaeda and Special Groups