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Ramadi - Operation Shank (Harba)

A couple of days ago, insurgents claimed al-Qaeda and Abu Musab al Zarqawi ran Ramadi, recently Operation Shank (Harba) proved them wrong.

After Ramadi being blazed by insurgents stating the city is run by al-Qaeda and Abu Musab al Zarqawi's followers, 300 US Marines, from the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, and 200 Iraqi soldiers started Operation Shank, in the capital of al Anbar province, Ramadi.

Sunni insurgent networks in the Anbar region, use the 400,000 people city of Ramadi as an enclave, after losing ground at Fallujah, to plan attacks and to manufacture explosives.

According to an US Military Statement on Operation Shank (Harba) in Ramadi:

"The purpose of the operation is to disrupt a terrorist group that utilizes an area of Ramadi as its base for attacks on local Ramadi citizens, Iraqi and U.S. military."

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a coalition operations officer, warned that Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, would probably step up attacks in Ramadi and elsewhere in Iraq in the next two weeks to try to disrupt parliamentary elections on Dec. 15.

The Sunnis and Shiites prayed together on Friday, in a demonstration organized by Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi, as a sign of unity ahead of the potentially divisive Dec 15 parliamentary elections.