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U.S. is escalating airstrikes in Iraq

The bombings are part of the crackdown around Baghdad.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 6, 2007

BAGHDAD - Four years into the war that opened with "shock and awe, " U.S. warplanes have again stepped up attacks in Iraq, dropping bombs at more than twice the rate of a year ago.

The airpower escalation parallels a nearly four-month-old security crackdown that is bringing 30, 000 additional U.S. troops into Baghdad and its surroundings - an urban campaign aimed at restoring order to an area riven with sectarian violence.

The escalation also reflects increased availability of planes from U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf.

In the first 4 1/2 months of 2007, American aircraft dropped 237 bombs and missiles in support of ground forces in Iraq, already surpassing the 229 expended in all of 2006, according to Air Force figures.

"Air operations over Iraq have ratcheted up significantly, in the number of sorties, the number of hours (in the air), " said Col. Joe Guastella, Air Force operations chief for the region. "It has a lot to do with increased pressure on the enemy by MNC-I" - the Multinational Corps-Iraq - "combined with more carriers."

The Air Force report did not break down the specific locations in Iraq where bombings have been stepped up. But U.S.-led forces also are locked in new and dangerous fronts against insurgents outside Baghdad.

A second Navy aircraft carrier on station since February in the Persian Gulf has added about 80 warplanes to the U.S. air arsenal in the region.

Air Force figures show that, after the thousands of bombs and missiles used in the 2003 shock and awe invasion, U.S. airpower settled down to a slow bombing pace: 285 munitions dropped in 2004, 404 in 2005 and 229 in 2006.

[Last modified June 6, 2007, 00:58:58]