This story is basically an admission that the occupation forces have lost control over Western Iraq. The destruction of such high value items as bridges is only considered if the targets in question have more value to the enemy than to your friends. In this case, most of the bridges over the Eurphrates west if Ramadi are not useful to the occupation forces nor to the government they have attempted to install in Baghdad.

I hope the two bridges remaining are sufficient to meet the needs of the people who live in that part of Iraq, and to convey needed Syrian and Lebanese produce to Baghdad...

Alan Moore

The internet conspiracy theorists are suggesting that the US miltary's latest operations in Iraq are aimed not so much at tackling insurgency, but at causing maximum disruption to areas likely to vote against the constitution. Blowing up bridges does seem to fit the latter aim, rather than the former - is this a confirmed piece of news?

US forces bomb Iraq's Euphrates bridges

October 06 2005 at 09:58AM

Baghdad - US-led forces have bombed eight bridges on the Euphrates River in western Iraq to stop insurgents using them, US military spokesperson Major General Rick Lynch said Thursday.

"We have been taking out portions of bridges with precision strikes," he told a news conference.

Of 12 bridges between the Syrian border and Ramadi, 110km west Baghdad, "four remain under control of the coalition forces and Iraqi forces after precision strikes on the others," he said.

"One of the vulnerabilities of this insurgency is freedom of movement," he added.

"We took out portions of these bridges to deny terrorists, foreign fighters and insurgents the capability to cross north to south or south to north across the Euphrates River."
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U.S. Marine Jets Bomb Two Bridges in Iraq


Tuesday September 6, 2005 9:16 AM

AP Photo BAG105

By SAMEER N. YACOUB

Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. Marine jets Tuesday destroyed two bridges across the Euphrates River near the Syrian border to prevent insurgents from using them to move foreign fighters and munitions into major cities, the U.S. command said.

The attacks occurred a day after U.N. chief Kofi Annan said Iraq had become an even greater terrorist center than the former Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Attacks attributed to al-Qaida's wing in Iraq have increased in the Baghdad area and western Iraq. - GuardianUnlimited.com
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U.S. says W. Iraq operations to run until election
06 Oct 2005 16:17:55 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Sebastian Alison

BAGHDAD, Oct 6 (Reuters) - A series of U.S. military strikes in western Iraq will continue at least until December to try to stop insurgents entering from Syria before a general election, the top U.S. army spokesman in Iraq said on Thursday.

"We're going to fight our way to the referendum, and we're going to fight our way to the election," Major General Rick Lynch told a news conference, referring to an Oct. 15 referendum on a new Iraqi constitution and the December parliamentary vote.

U.S. forces launched a wave of assaults in Iraq's Euphrates valley in late September, with new operations getting under way in October.

Washington and Baghdad see the stretch of the Euphrates valley running from the Syrian border to the town of Ramadi, 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, as the main entry route for arms and insurgents before they spread across the country.

Lynch said one strategy of Operation River Gate was to destroy some of the bridges over the Euphrates, reducing the number of possible crossing points and keeping the remaining ones under the control of U.S. or Iraqi forces.

He showed pictures of three bridges with their central sections missing, saying they were at the towns of Dulab, Barwana and Haditha. He added that the central spans had been destroyed by precision bombing. - AlertNet.org