The Baghdad Green Zone

GIs take the fight to Iraq insurgents14 Americans die in 3 days of U.S. offensive (click here) The USE BY SOME AMERICAN MEDIA OF THE 'PASSIVE VOICE'

By Joshua Partlow and John Ward Anderson

The Washington Post

Published June 22, 2007

PATROL BASE MURRAY, Iraq -- Fourteen U.S. soldiers and Marines have been killed in the latest three days of fighting in Iraq, the military announced Thursday, as American forces pressed their new security crackdown on several fronts in what is proving to be a costly and bloody campaign.

The American toll has mounted in the months since President Bush's "surge" was launched. The strategy has pushed troops into more insecure areas as they attempt to establish firm control in Baghdad and, farther afield, eliminate the threat of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

On Thursday, more than 1,200 U.S. soldiers were pushing south along the Tigris River through a Sunni insurgent haven known as Arab Jubour, part of U.S. strategy to take control of the terrain encircling the capital.

In Baqouba, north of Baghdad, Americans were fighting in city streets to detain insurgents and destroy their bombmaking facilities. In Arab Jubour, to the south of the capital, they were moving amid dense palm groves and along dusty canal roads in a grinding door-to-door search that began Saturday.

"The enemy is very talented out here. There is no doubt he has his game on," said Lt. Col. Ken Adgie, commander of the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division, whose soldiers are leading the ground effort at Patrol Base Murray. "It's going to be a long summer."...