Coalition General Updates on Operation: Phantom Phoenix Against Al-Qaeda in Iraq

Armed with a collective 154,000 personnel (24,000 Coalition forces, 50,000 Iraqi Army, and 80,000 Iraqi Police), Coalition forces have launched a major assault against al-Qaeda in Iraq into what Major General Hertling describes as a territory the size of Georgia, with the stated goal of uprooting the foreign grown terrorist organization.

"Our primary mission continues to be pursuing, capturing, and destroying al-Qaeda and other extremist groups that hinder the security of the Iraqi people," Maj. Gen. Hertling, commander of Operation: Phantom Phoenix's sub-Operation: Iron Harvest, said at a press conference in Baghdad on January 9th. He explained that for the past month, Coalition forces have been gathering key intelligence that they planned to use in the upcoming attack on extremist forces, which has already netted the deaths or captures of what are described as 20 key emirs of both al-Qaeda in Iraq and allied groups in every one of the four provinces Coalition forces are currently assailing.

Among the captures, General Hertling says, is Haider al-Afri, an emir in charge of al-Qaeda in Iraq's Mosul security, as well as "the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and for operations in western Mosul."

Other key figures include Moula Jassem, emir of terrorist group Jaish al-Islami in Kirkuk, Ali Hansel, a financial emir in Kirkuk, financiers Mohammed Omar Alawi and Leith Khalid Havi, military tactician and IED commander Abu Bilal, and Maqmoud Dalawi, who is responsible for the second Golden Mosque attack in Samarra.