Word: samarra
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...eerily empty when U.S. forces arrived, swooping out of the sky in four helicopters in a pre-dawn assault. Within moments of the helicopters touching down, roughly 75 U.S. paratroopers and a small contingent of Iraqi special forces fanned out through the desert hamlet about 15 miles southeast of Samarra. House after house turned up empty as the soldiers scoured the dozen or so buildings clustered together amid stretches of sandy flatlands covered with thorn brush. U.S. forces had hoped to surprise insurgents thought to be hiding on the outskirts of Samarra, where violence is on the rise...
American troops operating in the Samarra area are combing the countryside day by day in a counter-move against an expected influx of insurgent fighters, a shift expected in the wake of U.S. gains made against guerrilla forces in the neighboring provinces of Anbar and Diyala. U.S commanders say up to 80% of the insurgent leaders thought to be in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, fled ahead of the ongoing U.S. offensive there. And already signs are emerging that some of the insurgent leaders who've escaped the massive U.S. assault in Diyala have come here...
...Viet Luong, the commander of U.S. forces in the Samarra area, says insurgent violence has increased dramatically in Samarra and the arid plains surrounding the city. In the last two weeks, attacks have risen threefold in Samarra and the areas just outside the city, says Luong. There used to be roughly two attacks per day in Samarra and the farming towns around it. Now there are five to six attacks per day in the same radius, Luong says. Moreover, the insurgents on the scene around Samarra now are fighting with better tactics, a sign to Luong that experienced newcomers...
...Despite all this, Thabit believes he can quickly regain control of Samarra, where gunfights break out almost daily as insurgents target U.S. and Iraqi forces. Thabit says he needs 20 days to get the situation under control. But already he is losing ground...
...fearing another assault they could not stop. American trainers pressed the police to return to the station. They did, only to find it destroyed. Insurgents entered the building in the time the police were gone, rigged the structure with explosives and demolished it. Now the only police presence in Samarra away from the American base is a small outpost in the city center called Uvanni, an old school building strewn with trash and junked vehicles. Ferris and some of his men visited the police station Sunday and organized a joint patrol, which he felt went well. Still, Ferris doubts Thabit...