Attack a true surprise: insurgents already fled Diyala province

ESAIWID, Iraq — With extraordinary secrecy and even a disinformation campaign aimed at their Iraqi army comrades, U.S. troops launched a major offensive Tuesday to drive Sunni insurgents from strongholds in Diyala province. But many rebels still managed to flee ahead of time, showing just how difficult it is for the Americans to trap the elusive insurgents.

Because at least half the insurgents had escaped before a previous offensive last June, U.S. planners deliberately kept most Iraqi units in the dark before this one was launched, a tactic that suggests they cannot fully trust the allies who are supposed to pick up more of the fighting as U.S. troops scale back their presence later this year.

How the insurgents managed to get out ahead of the Americans this time remained unclear Tuesday night. They may have been tipped off by leaks or by the visible movements of troops and machinery that precede any operation.

Tuesday's offensive, in an area 60 miles northeast of Baghdad, began just before dawn. Armored Stryker units pushed into a 110-square-mile area in the fertile northern Diyala River Valley in search of 200 insurgents linked to al-Qaida in Iraq, the largely homegrown but foreign-led Sunni group that now represents the principal threat to stability in Iraq.

The offensive is part of a wider operation across northern Iraq to drive extremists from the region, where many fighters and leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq are thought to have fled after military operations around Baghdad and in Anbar province, as well as in Baqouba, the Diyala provincial capital 30 miles south of here.

Although the commander of the Iraqi 5th Army Division in Diyala was aware of the intended target, U.S. units in recent days and weeks carried out smaller decoy operations in towns farther south, including Baqouba and Wajihiya, to mislead extremists about where the actual operation would take place.

Nevertheless, some advance units noticed an unusual number of women and children recently fleeing south in cars, and residents of Esaiwid said Tuesday the insurgents left the village days ago, although some appear to have remained behind or returned to plant car bombs.