Word: baqubah
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...insurgents took control of the Diyala River Valley outside Baqubah almost as soon as the Americans deployed elsewhere in Iraq. That was back in November 2006. The streets of Diyala province then became deadlier than ever, as the string of placid farming hamlets nestled among dense palm groves shuddered with violence. The province and its capital, Baqubah, which lies 30 miles north of Baghdad, unraveled. The once mixed villages have become sectarian enclaves; banks, stores and markets have shut down for fear of murder and bloodshed. But at the end of February, the U.S. began patrolling the valley again...
...wasn't always this way. When U.S. Captain Mike Few was stationed outside Baqubah in November, tensions between Shi'ites, who make up 30% of the population of Diyala, and Sunnis were being held in check by tribal leaders. "It was manageable in the beginning," says Few. "The sheiks were working it out." But as the U.S. began shifting military resources to Baghdad, sectarian tensions erupted. Late last year the largely Shi'ite government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki choked off supplies of food and fuel to the predominantly Sunni province. Tribal violence, which has long been...
...suspected insurgents since re-entering the river valley on Feb. 27. They estimate that perhaps 100 more remain in the village of Zaganiyah, where some stragglers from Qubah may have fled and which U.S. commanders say they must eventually retake as part of the broader strategy to rid the Baqubah area of insurgents. The U.S. believes there are also insurgent training camps around Qubah and Zaganiyah where fighters learn guerrilla tactics and perfect skills at making roadside bombs. One ominous discovery: among the dead in Qubah was an alleged insurgent whose Iraqi passport indicated he had been through New York...
...American officers believe that within weeks they can kill or disperse insurgents in the valley, strangling the flow of fighters and weapons into Baqubah and Muqdadiyah. The retaking of those two towns may require much more time. Siegrist says clearing operations in Baqubah could take months and require another influx of U.S. forces, and Sutherland, the commanding officer in the province, says he's mulling over making a request for more soldiers...
...attack on Qubah opened in the hours before dawn March 24 with the sounds of a flotilla of helicopters thundering through the darkness over the river valley outside Baqubah. At about 4 a.m. local time, seven Chinooks, four Blackhawks and two Apache gunships rose as one from Forward Operating Base Warhorse, the main U.S. military base in Baqubah. Moments later, the helicopters descended on Qubah, a village at the northern edge of the river valley used by insurgents as a safe haven...