US attacks Iraqi terrorists

[k hanly <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This seems to be standard terminology now. Any armed resistance to the
occupation of Iraq is termed terrorism. Although some press reports put the
term in scare quotes its effect is not changed. Here we have Orwell in
2003.'

Cheers, Ken Hanly

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=414961


Helicopter shot down by Iraqi 'terrorists'
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
13 June 2003


American forces in Iraq have begun an offensive against "terrorists" who
shot down a US helicopter yesterday morning.

The AH-64 Apache helicopter was brought down north of Baghdad in an area
said to be a stronghold of Iraqi fighters loyal to former president Saddam
Hussein. It was the first helicopter to be shot down since Saddam was ousted
two months ago.

The operation against Saddam loyalists is the largest since the end of
hostilities and has been going on for the past three days, focusing on the
town of Duliyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad. Some 4,000 US soldiers have been
involved in the effort, named Operation Peninsula Strike.

Along with the sweep through the largely Sunni Muslim area of central Iraq,
north of the Iraqi capital, US forces struck what they described as a
"terrorist training camp" about 95 miles north-west of Baghdad. Fighter
jets, helicopters and unmanned aerial drones supported ground troops in the
strike on the camp, in which 10 to 15 Iraqis were killed and four American
soldiers were injured.

The region north and west of Baghdad is part of the so-called Sunni
triangle, the heartland of support for Saddam's now-banned Baath party and
close to the ex-leader's home town of Tikrit. This area has been identified
as part of an arc in which the former leader is reported to have been seen
since he was forced from power. Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National
Congress, said this week that Saddam was offering a reward of $200 for every
US soldier killed.

The sweep has resulted in the capture of up to 400 Iraqis, who were being
questioned by US officials "armed with intelligence that has directed the
finger toward these suspects", said Lieutenant Ryan Fitzgerald, a spokesman
for the US Central Command. Lt Fitzgerald added: "If we believe they're
dangerous and will cause problems for the Iraqi people or coalition forces,
we'll keep them for further information."

This week the Pentagon announced that 183 US military personnel had been
killed since the war began. Of those, 45 have been killed since President
George Bush declared the war in Iraq over on 1 May. Earlier this week, the
Associated Press said its inquiries had established that at least 3,240
Iraqi civilians were killed in one month, between 20 March and 20 April.

Brigadier Daniel Hahn, chief of staff for V Corps, which oversees US Army
operations in Iraq, said: "There have been a growing number of former regime
loyalists, Baath party officials, Fedayeen and Iraqi Intelligence
Service-type people who exist [in the Sunni triangle] and continue to hire
individuals to come in and attack Americans."

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.Org, a Washington-based military
research group, said he believed the attacks on Americans were taking place
as US forces worked out the scale and nature of the presence required to
ensure law and order in various parts of Iraq. "I think they are nipping it
in the bud as the buds appear," he said. "They have a fundamental dilemma in
the sense that on the one hand they do not have an overwhelming military
presence. There would be no useful purpose in having large battalions
driving around and reminding people that they have been occupied - that
would provoke what you are trying to avoid. It is going to be a learning
process."
   12 June 2003 23:00