Word: crackdowns
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...thunderous start of Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Diyala province inaugurates the second phase of Gen. David Petraeus's "surge" strategy. If the first, a massive security crackdown in and around Baghdad, was designed to smoke al-Qaeda and other militant groups out of their foxholes, the new assault is meant to pick them off in open battle. The assault began in and around Baquba, the volatile provincial capital about 31 miles northeast of Baghdad, and involves over 10,000 American soldiers and heavy air cover...
...That was then. Angry at what he has termed sensationalist reporting, Musharraf launched a crackdown on the press two weeks ago. Live coverage of rallies related to Chaudhry have been banned, as have live talk shows on the issue. Opposition party organizers are routinely detained prior to planned antigovernment demonstrations. Outspoken activists have been charged with terrorist acts and others have simply disappeared. Qazim Bugti, mayor of a small town in the insurgency-wracked province of Baluchistan, was picked up in November. His is one of 99 abductions documented by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan last year...
...reality of Iraq today comes into focus. The "surge" - the Bush Administration?s term for the security crackdown in and around Baghdad - is based on the assumption that Iraqi security forces are competent to do basic jobs such as guarding important structures. That is meant to free Americans for high-risk tasks, such as disposing of roadside bombs. But even before Samarra, there was a growing body of evidence that Iraqis aren't ready or willing to perform their appointed tasks. What does that imply for the U.S. military operation and when it might end? Or for the development...
...February 2006 - have plunged Iraq into civil war. But it is brainy operatives like Abdallah who pose the most consistently lethal threat to U.S. forces. When we met for our second encounter in 15 months, he didn't seem especially worried that a massive U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown had been under way in Baghdad for the past four months - and that one of its aims was to break the back of the IED industry and roll up people like him. (Abdallah was introduced to TIME through Sunni insurgent contacts, but he did not provide his real name or reveal where...
...Such claims are typically greeted with skepticism by U.S. commanders. There have been no reports of any Abrams tanks being taken out by an IED since the start of the security crackdown. Still, there's anecdotal evidence that deep-buried bombs are having a devastating effect on other heavily armored American vehicles, even those designed to withstand large explosions. The Islamic Army isn't alone in employing this technique. In April a video posted on the Internet by the Islamic State of Iraq showed several Cougars and Nyala RG-31s - "mine protected" troop carriers - being blown up by IEDs...