US launches biggest Iraq air assault since 2003

[Guardian: March 17, 2006]

The US military said yesterday it had launched the biggest air assault on Iraq since its invasion in 2003, with American and Iraqi troops targeting insurgents near Samarra, the city that has come to symbolise the threat of civil war. A military statement said more than 50 aircraft and 1,500 US and Iraqi troops using more than 200 vehicles had been deployed in an offensive intended to clear a "suspected insurgent operating area" north-east of the city.

What was it they are trying to achieve again? It seems like a PR campaign to show that the new Iraqi army is actually capable of something. So you select these 4 villages where "Unknown gunmen" hang out and then you "find" all those weapons.