U.S. forces attacked suspected guerrilla targets near the northern Iraqi town of Samarra overnight in an operation to weaken a raging insurgency, witnesses said on Friday, according to Reuters. The sound of what appeared to be heavy U.S. machineguns crackled in the village of Jillaam as a fire raged and flares arched overhead, the witnesses said. The military said the offensive north of Baghdad involving 650 U.S. troops and 800 Iraqis was fairly routine, but film released by the Pentagon of soldiers being ferried to landing zones provided a graphic image that battles are continuing. Involving 50 helicopters, it was the biggest "air assault" since a similar airlift across Iraq, also by the 101st Airborne Division, just after the war in late April 2003, officials said.
