U.S. military: Iraq bombing campaign a success

updated 4:45 p.m. ET Jan. 11, 2008

BAGHDAD, Iraq - One of the largest bombing campaigns of the war destroyed extremists' "defensive belts" south of Baghdad, allowing American soldiers to push into areas where they have not been in years, a top commander said Friday.

The day before, two B1-B bombers and four F-16 fighter jets dropped 48 guided bombs on 47 targets, U.S. Air Force Col. Peter Donnelly, commander of the 18th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Group, told reporters in Baghdad.

The targets consisted mainly of weapons caches and powerful roadside bombs buried deep underground — key defensive elements for al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents, said Donnelly and Army Col. Terry Ferrell, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.

Extremists were believed to have controlled Arab Jabour, a Sunni district lined with citrus groves, but Ferrell said "the predominant number" have now fled to the southwest since his troops' operations began Jan. 1.

"We're moving into areas where coalition forces have not been in months or years in some cases," Ferrell told reporters via a video link, adding that insurgents "had established a deliberate defensive belt to deny our movement in the area."

The southwest is "where we take this fight to next. It is all about fighting the enemy where the enemy wants to go," Ferrell said.

Awakening Council to stabilize region
As U.S. and Iraqi ground forces move through areas to push out insurgents, Ferrell said members of the Awakening Council movement — mostly Sunni fighters who switched sides to join in the fight against al-Qaida — will be relied upon to stabilize the region and maintain security.

It was those Sunni fighters, Ferrell said, who largely provided the intelligence that allowed U.S. forces to locate the targets destroyed in Thursday's bombing.

Despite the massive size of the airstrikes, Donnelly said that to the military's knowledge, no civilians were killed. That could not immediately be independently confirmed. He added that strikes on three targets were called off because unmanned surveillance planes showed civilians in those areas.

Donnelly said it was not yet known how many insurgents were killed in the attacks.

But Mustapha Kamil Shibeeb al-Jibouri, leader of Arab Jabour's Awakening Council, said the airstrikes killed at least 21 al-Qaida militants, including a group leader.

"Their bodies are still in the area. They have not been evacuated yet," he told The Associated Press.

Airstrikes and arrests
After Thursday's fierce airstrikes, soldiers discovered two houses used to torture kidnap victims and arrested at least 12 suspected insurgents, according to an Iraqi officer.

The bombing campaign was part of a nationwide operation that the U.S. military began on Tuesday in an effort to rid Iraq of al-Qaida fighters.

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