U.S. bombing campaign pressures al-Qaida

BAGHDAD, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- A U.S. bombing campaign to eliminate al-Qaida's tactical advantage in Arab Jabour, Iraq, has cleared the way for ground troops to force remaining militants out.

Officials say 35 targets were destroyed by more than 19,000 pounds of bombs recently during a series of airstrikes. The most recent bombing campaign capped a 10-day period of airstrikes around the village of Arab Jabour, southeast of Baghdad, where coalition forces dropped a total of 114,500 pounds of bombs taking out 104 targets, the Multinational Force-Iraq reported.

Army Col. Terry Ferrell, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, says the drop was an effort to eliminate improvised explosive devices and other threats in the al-Qaida stronghold before coalition ground forces could move in.

"The strikes that we concluded were focused on IEDs and caches that we have targeted, that will allow us to get our ground troops further into the zone," Ferrell said in a statement.

Critics of the U.S. bombing campaigns in Iraq argue airstrikes of this magnitude result in unwarranted civilian deaths. But Ferrell says great care was taken in selecting targets to prevent collateral damage.

"The process that we go through to orchestrate an event of this magnitude, or any targeting cycle that we work together with the Air Force, is a very detailed, deliberate process," Ferrell said.