Southeast of Baghdad, the Surge is Working |
| Published: August 25, 2007, 9:00 am |
| Tags: war |
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SALMAN PAK, IRAQ The region to the south and east of Baghdad, home to the Tigris River Valley, to the former terrorist training center (and resort town) of Salman Pak, and to the long-since defunct Iraqi nuclear reactor, has seen little of the coalition since the initial invasion of 2003. One of several areas through which the military quickly passed, killing off Saddam's army while on the move, and then abandoned entirely, the region strategically important due to the makeup of its inhabitants (Shi'a farmers and former Sunni aristocrats) and of its terrain (the Tigris snakes through the region, and the fields there, though they appear to be made of nothing but powdery dust, are among the most fertile in central Iraq) has long since become home to rivaling factions of various insurgent and sectarian groups. From al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) to Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army' (the Jaisch al Mahdi, or JAM'), insurgents in the area have now spent [ Full article ] |
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