Background
According to Lt General Raymond Odierno, the goal of the operation was to provide security for the nine major cities in Iraq, with an emphasis on securing Baghdad. The operation built on the previous two major operations, Operation Phantom Thunder and Operation Phantom Strike, which were launched at the conclusion of the US troop build-up in June 2007, in order to eliminate insurgent safe havens throughout the Baghdad Belts and secure the population of Baghdad.
"Working closely with the Iraqi Security Forces, we will continue to pursue al-Qaeda and other extremists wherever they attempt to take sanctuary. will synchronize lethal and non-lethal effects to exploit recent security gains and disrupt terrorist support zones and enemy command and control... a series of joint Iraqi and Coalition division and brigade level operations to pursue and neutralize remaining al-Qaeda in Iraq and other extremists., the non-lethal aspects of this operation are designed to improve delivery of essential services, economic development and local governance capacity.”
—Lt General Raymond Odierno, Commanding General, Multi-National Corps-Iraq
Read more about this topic: Operation Phantom Phoenix
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)