page_title: Diyala campaign
section_title: Operation "Arrowhead Ripper"
hierarchical_section_title: Diyala campaign / The Campaign / Operation "Arrowhead Ripper"
caption_attribution_description: English: Soldiers from the 5th Iraqi Army Division, run through a smoke screen in Baqubah, Iraq, June 22, as Soldiers from the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Washington, follow. The action was part of Operation Arrowhead Ripper, a joint effort between U.S. and Iraqi security forces to defeat al-Qaida terrorists and secure the city.
context_page_description: The Diyala province campaign was a series of operations conducted by coalition forces against Iraqi insurgents and a number of bombing and guerrilla attacks against the security forces in Diyala Governorate of Iraq, with the purpose of control of the province.
context_section_description: In mid-June the U.S. mounted an offensive against Baghdad's northern and southern flanks. In the north an operation dubbed "Arrowhead Ripper" was started with air assaults under the cover of darkness in Baqubah. Heavy street fighting lasted throughout the first day of the operation, mainly in the center of the city and around the main city market. On the first day of the operation 22 insurgents and one U.S. soldier were killed. 
  The next week saw U.S. forces trying to take Baqubah back from the insurgents. The attack on the city came from the west but was complicated by a maze of booby-trapped houses. It took the Americans a week before they secured 80 percent of the western section of the city. The insurgents already had intelligence that the U.S. army was going to attack the city and evacuated up to 80 percent of its principal leadership long before the operation.
  After a month of street battles the fighting ceased in large parts of the city but the town of Al Khalis, approx. 15 km to the north, seemed to have become a major restaging point for insurgents retreating form Baqubah, despite the nearby presence of significant US forces at FOB Grizzly and People's Mujahedin of Iran personnel at "Ashraf City". By July 9, the focus of operations seemed to have shifted to the Baghdad-Baqubah road SW of the town.
  On August 19, operation Arrowhead Ripper ended and Baqubah was largely secured by Coalition forces but still some insurgent presence remained in the city and surrounding areas but not in such large numbers as it was before the attack on the city.
caption: Soldiers from the 5th Iraqi Army Division, run through a smoke screen in Baqubah, Iraq, June 22, 2007, as Soldiers from the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division follow.
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