American and Iraqi forces launched a fresh attack against Al-Qaeda fighters on Tuesday, the US military announced. "(Phantom Phoenix) is a series of joint Iraqi and coalition... operations to pursue and neutralise remaining Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other extremist elements," Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, the number two commander of US forces in Iraq, said in a statement, cited by AFP.
Odierno said the assault "will exploit recent security gains and disrupt terrorist support zones and enemy command and control." Phantom Phoenix, he said, would also involve "non-lethal" aspects designed "to improve delivery of essential services, economic development and local governance capacity."
One of the operations, dubbed Iron Harvest, involves four American infantry companies -- about 640 soldiers -- around the town of Muqdadiyah, 100 kilometres northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province, Colonel Brad Coffey told reporters in the provincial capital Baquba. Iron Harvest is targeting around 200 Al-Qaeda fighters in the Muqdadiyah area, he added.
"Al-Qaeda in Iraq is attempting to regain strength and establish new support areas in northern Iraq," said Lt. Col. James Hutton, a spokesman for the U.S. military. "AQI has fled its former sanctuaries and remains a dangerous foe."
In fresh violence in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, a police colonel was shot dead by unknown attackers in the mainly-Shiite Zafaraniyah neighbourhood in southeastern Baghdad, an interior ministry official said. In the western Mansour neighbourhood, a tax department official was shot dead by gunmen as he left his home.
