Operation Swarmer | |||||||
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Part of the Post-invasion Iraq | |||||||
![]() Operation Swarmer begins with the largest air assault operation since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
![]() ![]() | Other Iraqi insurgents | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
More than 50 aircraft, 200 Vehicles and 1,500 troops | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
None | 48 Captured (17 were later released) |
Operation Swarmer was a joint U.S-Iraqi air assault offensive targeting insurgents in Salahuddin province, near the central city of Samarra, Iraq.
According to the US military, it was the largest air assault in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003. The area was a hotbed for insurgent activity including the kidnapping and killing of civilians and soldiers. Samarra was the site of the bombing of the revered Al-Askari Shiite Shrine on 22 February 2006, that set off a wave of sectarian killing that claimed almost 500 lives. Coalition forces said they had captured a number of weapons caches containing shells, explosives and military uniforms. The US military expected this operation to last several days. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari stated that insurgents were "trying to create another Fallujah". The Operation netted at least 48 suspects, of which about 17 were released. [1] The U.S Military reports no significant resistance, and also says it achieved the tactical surprise factor it was seeking.
Other reports, however, have suggested that the lack of resistance may have been due to a lack of significant targets in the region. Time magazine's Brian Bennett reported that the area is a farming community with only 1,500 residents. [1] Time also contested early television news reports that the operation was the largest use of air power since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, indicating that no air strikes had occurred. Bennett points out that the military term air assault refers specifically to moving troops into an area. Reporter Christopher Allbritton further reports that no fixed-wing aircraft were involved in the operation. However, the lack of fixed-wing aircraft and the use of airstrikes does not mean that the mission was not, by definition, an air assault. [2]
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States–led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq. Twenty-two days after the first day of the invasion, the capital city of Baghdad was captured by Coalition forces on 9 April 2003 after the six-day-long Battle of Baghdad. This early stage of the war formally ended on 1 May 2003 when U.S. President George W. Bush declared the "end of major combat operations" in his Mission Accomplished speech, after which the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the first of several successive transitional governments leading up to the first Iraqi parliamentary election in January 2005. U.S. military forces later remained in Iraq until the withdrawal in 2011.
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Al-Askari Shrine, the 'Askariyya Shrine or the Al-Askari Mosque is a Shia Muslim mosque and mausoleum in the Iraqi city of Samarra 125 km (78 mi) from Baghdad. It is one of the most important Shia shrines in the world. It was built in 944. The dome was destroyed in a bombing by Sunni extremists in February 2006 and its two remaining minarets were destroyed in another bombing in June 2007, causing widespread anger among Shias and instigation of the Iraqi Civil War between the country's Shia and Sunni factions. The remaining clock tower was also destroyed in July 2007. The dome and minarets were repaired and the mosque reopened in April 2009.
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The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 that began with the intervention in Iraq by the United States-led coalition that overthrew the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the next decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the coalition forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government. US troops were officially withdrawn in 2011. The United States became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition, and the insurgency and many dimensions of the armed conflict are ongoing. The invasion occurred as part of the George W. Bush administration's war on terror following the September 11 attacks.
Operation Together Forward, also known as Forward Together, was an unsuccessful offensive against sectarian militias in Baghdad to significantly reduce the violence in which had seen a sharp uprise since the mid-February 2006 bombing of the Askariya Mosque, a major Shiite Muslim shrine, in Samarra.
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The 2007 al-Askari mosque bombing occurred on 13 June 2007 at around 9 am local time at one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, the al-Askari Mosque, and has been attributed by Iran to the Iraqi Baath Party. While there were no injuries or deaths reported, the mosque's two ten-story minarets were destroyed in the attacks. This was the second bombing of the mosque, with the first bombing occurring on 22 February 2006 and destroying the mosque's golden dome.
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Operation Marne Torch refers to two operations launched by U.S.-led Coalition forces in 2007 against al-Qaeda in Iraq in the Arab Jabour area of Babil province. This campaign is named after Operation Torch, the joint US/British invasion of French North Africa in 1942, presumably because of the two operations' similar thrust into the enemies' southern underbellies.
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