Bodies Found After U.S./ Iraqi Offensive
Sat Nov 12, 2005

Ramadi, Iraq (Reuters)- an Iraqi Red Crescent doctor said on Saturday more than 50 bodies had been found in the rubble of a town near the Syrian border which US-led troops swept through this week in an anti-Insurgent offensive.

Around 2,500 US troops and 1,000 Iraqi soldiers launched Operation Steel Curtain a week ago around the Western Town of Qusayba. They conducted house-to-house searches to root out Insurgents and destroyed a number of houses in airstrikes.

The US military says it has detained around 180 Insurgents and killed at least 36 more in the Operation, which was continuing in the nearby Town of Karabila on Friday.

It said around 900 Civilians who fled the Town were given temporary housing nearby during the Operation.

As residents started to trickle back to Qusayba in recent days, doctor Saif Al-Ani, who works for the Red Crescent in the Qaim area, told Reuters they had unearthed at least 54 bodies in the rubble, Including some Women and Children.

There was no immediate response from the US military about the Casualties.

The military has said it made every effort to avoid Civilian Casualties. It reported an incident earlier this week in which it said five Civilians were killed in a house after being taken hostage by Insurgents who occupied the building.

The US military has in the past accused doctors in Western Iraq of misrepresenting Civilian Casualties after US attacks.

Operation Steel Curtain was the lates in a series of offensives aimed at securing Western Iraq against Sunni Arab Insurgents and foreign fighters before a December 15 election.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051112/ts_nm/iraq_offensive_bodies_dc

Quote Of The Day:
From the 'Don' of the Pentagon (Rumsfeld quoting Al Capone)-
"you can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone!"