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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Iraq offensives have cut foreign fighters

Rick Jervis USA Today

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A string of U.S.-led offensives in western Iraq have helped lead to a 50 percent drop in the number of foreign fighters slipping across the Syrian border, a U.S. general said.

“Clearly, the effect we’re most concerned about is foreigners coming and murdering other Iraqis and attacking coalition and Iraqi forces,” said Lt. Gen. John Vines, commander of multinational ground forces in Iraq. “Indicators are that a significantly reduced number of them are entering the country.”

Over the weekend, 3,500 troops, including 1,000 Iraqi soldiers, launched the latest offensive aimed at disrupting the supply line that brings foreign fighters from the Syrian border along a string of Euphrates River towns into central Iraq.

On Sunday, coalition forces battled insurgents in Husaybah, a town near the border of Syria, on the second day of the offensive. Several dozen insurgents were killed as Marines pressed into the city. A Marine was killed when he entered a house rigged to explode.

Cutting off the supply of foreign fighters is a priority for coalition forces. Vines, commander of multinational ground forces in Iraq, declined to give numbers of how many foreigners are crossing the borders. Maj. Angela Hildebrant, a military spokeswoman, said the U.S. military estimates the number of foreign fighters by counting the number of foreigners killed in suicide attacks or captured by coalition forces in Iraq.

Only 3.5 percent of the 13,885 detainees held by U.S. forces in Iraq are foreigners, but they are often behind the deadliest suicide bombings and provide financing and organization to Iraq’s insurgency.

Rooting insurgents out of western Iraq and disrupting the supply line of foreign fighters has been difficult. Twenty-two Marines were killed last month in Anbar province, the region extending from west of Baghdad to the Syrian border.

“We know we’ll be successful with this operation,” Marine Col. Stephen Davis said just before Operation Steel Curtain was launched. “The only question is the price we’ll pay.”

Vines cautioned that the number of fighters crossing the border “ebbs and flows,” and the latest good news may not signal a trend.