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The Baghdad belts are residential, agricultural, and industrial areas that encircle the city, and networks of roadways, rivers, and other lines of communication that lie within a twenty or thirty mile radius of Baghdad and connect the capital to the rest of Iraq. Beginning in the north, the belts include the cities of Taji, clockwise to Tarmiyah, Baqubah, Buhriz, Besmayah and Nahrwan, Salman Pak, Mahmudiyah, Sadr al-Yusufiyah, Fallujah, and Karmah.
Although one of the smallest factions in the Sunni insurgency, Al-Qaeda in Iraq may be one of the most deadly. US operations have put tremendous pressure on the group.
Phantom Strike, a series of targeted joint operations against al Qaeda, Sunni, and Shi'a insurgent elements
in Baghdad and the surrounding areas, was launched on August 13, 2007.
What began in Anbar as a local movement of tribes is developing into a national phenomenon.
This Iraq Report describes planning and preparations for a major Corps offensive in central Iraq, Operation Phantom Thunder, which began on June 15, 2007.
This backgrounder provides a bulletized summary of Operation Phantom Thunder.
This order of battle describes U.S. forces involved in Operation Phantom Thunder.