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Rumsfeld predicts major Iraq ops


Talon
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Rumsfeld predicts major Iraq ops

Large-scale assaults on Iraq's troublespots could be the way to wrest control back from militants, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said.

After parts of the city of Samarra were retaken by 5,000 troops, Mr Rumsfeld said similar operations could be launched elsewhere.

He said he did not fear civil war in Iraq, but a takeover by extremists.

The Pentagon said September was the second-deadliest month of the year for US troops, in which 80 died.

In April, 135 were killed.

September's figure takes the total number of soldiers killed in Iraq to 1,058, the Pentagon said.

Mr Rumsfeld lamented the losses, saying: "It is in freedom's defence that our country has had the benefit of these wonderful volunteers."

In other developments in Iraq:

Four US soldiers were charged with the murder of an Iraqi general who died of asphyxiation while being interrogated in November

At least 21 people were killed in two car bombs in Baghdad

At least nine people were killed in US air raids on the town of Falluja

A car bomb exploded near a primary school in the northern city of Mosul killing at least three people

'Terrorist takeover'

US and Iraqi government forces said on Sunday they had secured about 70% of the city of Samarra, after a two-day assault in which more than 125 insurgents were killed.

Iraq's defence minister said 42 suspected foreign fighters were among 105 insurgents seized.

"What has to be done in that country is what happened in Samarra over the last 48 hours," Mr Rumsfeld told the US Council on Foreign Relations.

"You cannot allow a series of safe havens [for insurgents] or a consistent pattern of misbehaviour, anti-social behaviour, violence against the government of Iraq to go on over a sustained period of time," he said.

Some reports say residents of Samarra are too afraid to venture out. Witnesses have spoken of American snipers shooting at anyone who appeared on the streets.

Mr Rumsfeld said he did not see civil war as the main danger in Iraq. Instead, "the risk is that the terrorists, and the extremists, and the people who are running around chopping off people's heads and killing innocent men, women and children will take over that country".

Wards 'horrible'

On Monday the centre of Baghdad was shaken by two powerful car bombs.

The first went off outside an army recruitment centre near an entrance to the high-security Green Zone in the centre of the city, witnesses said.

Hospital and military officials said at least 15 people had been killed and more than 80 injured.

One doctor described conditions on the wards as "truly horrible", the BBC's Caroline Hawley in Baghdad said.

Less than an hour later, another explosion went off in the city's Saadoun Street, apparently targeting a US military convoy.

The Iraqi interior ministry said six people were killed and at least 12 injured in the second attack, most of them Iraqi bystanders.

On Sunday night the residents of Falluja, 65km (40 miles) west of Baghdad, endured another night of bombardment from the air.

The US military says its precision strikes" have inflicted significant damage on insurgent networks.

But hospital sources said at least nine people were killed, including women and children.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/worl...ast/3715212.stm

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Rumsfeld predicts major Iraq ops

Large-scale assaults on Iraq's troublespots could be the way to wrest control back from militants, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said.

After parts of the city of Samarra were retaken by 5,000 troops, Mr Rumsfeld said similar operations could be launched elsewhere.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/worl...ast/3715212.stm

290773[/snapback]

GO Rumsfeld GO!!! thumbsup.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gifbounce.gif

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Mucho support and love and respect to my friends and loved ones over there trying to help make that place safer from maniacs.

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Its time to kick some serious A**** and give it right to these militants, so when the elections come around ore people from more areas can vote!

Good luck to those over there putting there lives on the line!

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