Ramadi Operation Underway

Full report here

Ramadi, Iraq -AP, June 19, 2006) - The U.S. military fired on suspected militants from an AC-130 gunship above the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi on Monday while hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops punched into an eastern section of the violent city.

The military drive was the latest step by the combined force to strengthen its presence in neighborhoods that have been no-go zones controlled by the Sunni-led insurgency.
The AC-130 Spectre gunship fired on a gang of suspected insurgents in the initial hours of the operation, U.S. commanders on the ground said. Six men were thought to have been killed, and sporadic exchanges of gunfire between U.S. troops and insurgent snipers echoed during the first hours of the push.

No U.S. casualties were initially reported.

U.S. troops throughout the eastern Ramadi neighborhood peered over rooftop parapets of commandeered homes in temperatures that soared well above 100 degrees, watching for insurgent reconnaissance teams posing as pedestrians.

A handful of children rode by on bicycles and a few civilians roamed the largely empty streets. The city was unusually quiet as troops watched out for "peekers," residents who might be peering out of windows as spotters for insurgent gunmen.

Marine specialists from the Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company stayed in radio contact with pilots in F-18 Hornet jets soaring overhead. The fliers, responding in scratchy radio reports, monitored residents near U.S. positions.

The operation, launched to establish a new outpost about a half-mile deeper into the Mulaab neighborhood, was intended to install U.S. and Iraqi troops solidly in a troublesome area where insurgents have frequently attacked.