Operation Desert Shield (2006)

Operation Desert Shield
	Part of Iraq War and the Global War on Terrorism
Date	January 2006 – May 2006
Location	Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq
Result	Total Al-Qaeda defeat
Belligerents
United States of America; United Kingdom; Iraq	Mujahideen Shura Council Al-Qaeda in Iraq; Other insurgents

Operation Desert Shield was a 2006 operation by the Iraqi insurgency and al-Qaeda in Iraq, planned in December 2005 as a push against American forces during the Iraq War. The goal was to destabilize the American foothold in the Anbar province over the course of six months.

The planning of the operation was not discovered by the Americans until documents captured after the death of Faris Abu Azzam were finally translated, and revealed the details of the operation.^[2] The army said the documents surprised them, showing that the insurgents had a "pretty robust command and control system".^[2]

^ A War of Choice: Honour, Hubris and Sacrifice: The British in Iraq by Jack Fairweather
^ ^a ^b CNN, Papers give peek inside al Qaeda in Iraq, 11 June 2008

[1] A War of Choice: Honour, Hubris and Sacrifice: The British in Iraq by Jack Fairweather

[cnn-2] CNN, Papers give peek inside al Qaeda in Iraq, 11 June 2008

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