“Dozens Are Arrested in U.S.-Iraqi Operation: Anbar Residents Said to Offer Their Assistance,” which is most positive. From the Washington Post, :
BAGHDAD, June 30 — U.S. and Iraqi forces in the volatile
western province of Anbar have seized thousands of pounds of explosives and arrested dozens of suspected insurgents in a three-day sweep that has encountered little resistance and received widespread cooperation from local residents, military officials said Thursday.The thrust by about 1,000 U.S. Marines, soldiers and sailors and 100 Iraqi soldiers, called Operation Sword, centered on towns along the Euphrates River about 90 miles west of Baghdad. Marine spokesmen have said the operation, like other recent sweeps farther west, is aimed at driving insurgents out of towns and disrupting their ability to move fighters, weapons and supplies from neighboring Syria into western Iraq and other parts of the country….