Operation Thunder Rolling Along

Almost one week has passed since Operation Thunder (also referred to as Operation Lightning) was executed on the heels of New Market in Haditha and Matador on the Syrian Border. The purpose of Thunder is to secure Baghdad, then expand operations and the presence of Iraqi security forces into the Sunni Triangle. Evidence surfaces that Thunder is freeing up forces in other areas of Iraq to pursue the offensive, and perhaps expanding operations outside Baghdad.

South of Baghdad in the Triangle of Death, a region delineated by the towns of Yusufiyah, Latifiyah and Mahmudiyah, Coalition and Iraqi forces conduct a sweep and arrested 108 suspected insurgents. In Mosul, the Coalition bags a senior aide of Zarqawi, who is thought to be high in the command structure of the terrorist group Ansar al-Sunnah. There are excess U.S. forces to spare in Mosul as well.

Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition forces on Friday arrested Mullah Mahdi and five other suspected terrorists -- Mahdi's brother, three other Iraqis and a Syrian…This week, the U.S. military increased its numbers in the province to about 4,000 troops and began a sweep of the area, looking for insurgents who might be using the remote region as a staging ground for terror attacks across Iraq.

US Marines continue to patrol the so-called "No-Go zones" of the Sunni Triangle and Western Anbar province in a series of "ongoing operations". North of Fallujah, they uncovered a massive complex of terrorist bunkers and weapons depots.

American marines have discovered an elaborate series of underground bunkers used recently by insurgents in western Iraq, with heavy weapons, a kitchen and fresh food, furnished living quarters, showers and even a working air conditioner…The bunkers were fashioned from an old rock quarry north of the town of Karma, an insurgent stronghold in hostile Anbar Province that lies near the city of Falluja, just 35 miles west of Baghdad. The quarry measures about 546 feet by 883 feet, and the series of bunkers is the largest underground insurgent hideout to be discovered in at least the last year, if not during entire guerilla war… the military did not say exactly when the bunkers were discovered, but that the find came as part of "ongoing operations" being conducted in Anbar Province in the last three days. During those operations, troops with the Second Marine Division located about 50 weapons and ammunition caches.

In Western Iraq, a "U.S. Army force on an unrelated mission" attacked a home after coming under fire. After killing two Saudis, an Algerian and a Jordanian and arresting two Saudis and a Moroccan, the soldiers discovered the body of Raja Nawaf Farhan Mahalawi, the kidnapped governor of the Anbar province and "son of a top sheik of Anbar's leading Albu Mahal tribe." The tribe is displeased:

After the killing, the governor's family had asked U.S. military officials not to intervene if tribe members attacked hideouts of Arab fighters they believed were somehow involved, said one relative, Omar Farhan.

Al Qaeda: ever eager to win the hearts and minds of those they most depend on – the Sunni tribes.

Speaking of the Sunnis, a fair measure of the effectiveness of Operation Thunder can be taken by the words of the pro-insurgency Muslim Scholars Association.

"I appeal to every official here in Iraq to stop humiliating people and [end] the raiding campaign," Sheik Mahmoud al-Sumaidie said in the Um al-Qura mosque, which also is headquarters of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars.

Operation Thunder appears to be moving towards its desired goals of rounding up suspected insurgents, seizing weapons caches and bomb factories and freeing up American forces for operations elsewhere. Security within Baghdad (carbombs detonated) is still an unknown factor, and this will doubtlessly be the metric by which the success of the operation is judged.