By Xinhua
Baghdad : US planes pounded 30 suspected Al Qaeda hideouts in a southern suburb of Iraqi capital Baghdad for the third time in the month, the US military said Monday.
In the air raids Sunday night, 35 bombs weighing a total of 9,000 kg were dropped on the Sunni dominated rural area of Arab Jabour. The purpose of the air raid was to destroy roadside bombs and arms caches, a military statement said.
The air strikes were conducted by US air force, navy and marine F-18 fighter jets and B-1 bombers, it said.
“The strikes that we conducted were focused on IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and weapons caches, and would allow our ground troops to go further into areas where we have not gone before,” Colonel Terry Ferrell of US military said.
The latest air assault is the third this month on the area, following earlier air strikes Jan 10 and Jan 16 in which a total of 99 targets were struck with bombs weighing more than 59,000 kg, the military said.
The air strikes were part of a countrywide operation dubbed “Phantom Phoenix”, which is an all-out offensive launched by the US military Jan 8 to pursue and neutralize Al Qaeda and other extremist insurgents in the country.