Operation Squeeze Play
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| Operation Squeeze Play | |||||||
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| Part of the Post-invasion Iraq | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States  New Iraqi Army | Iraqi Insurgents | ||||||
After the handover of sovereignty, Operation Squeeze Play was a combined U.S./Iraqi sweep of the eastern suburbs of Baghdad launched on 22 May 2005. Almost 300 suspects were detained in the first day of the operation.[1]
It followed Operation Matador, and preceded Operation New Market.
The United States led a coalition force into Iraq to overthrow the Saddam Hussein government. This was the beginning of the Iraq War. The war was meant to stop terrorism from spreading out of Iraq after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The United States was joined by the United Kingdom and many other coalition forces in the invasion of Iraq. The beginning of the invasion led to many different operations throughout the Iraq War, the most famous being Operation Red Dawn which led to the capture of Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein being captured led to various groups and governments trying to take power of Iraq leading to sectarian violence. Throughout the many stages of the Iraq war Operation Squeeze Play was a minor operation but portrayed a new hope to the coalition force.[2] This coalition force was seen as the beginning of a new era to military officials because of the cooperation of the parties that ultimately led to success.
Overview
The goal of this operation was to raid areas in eastern Baghdad and detain anybody linked to terrorism in hopes of fighting terror in the capital of Iraq.[2] The raids began in 22 May 2005 and led to about 400 detainees in a span of 48 hours.[3] The coalition task force was going house to house in the eastern Baghdad areas clearing blocks in hopes of finding suspected terrorists or anybody with useful information on known terrorists in the city. The residents of the war-ravaged city accepted the military forces well and even provided information about known terrorists that were spotted in the city. These specific cities were of interest to the coalition military because of the constant use of homemade roadside explosives that were common in this area of Iraq and the geographic location of the city. The cities were used as a harboring spot for both Ba'ath Party terrorists and the Zarqawi terrorist network between Baghdad and Fallujah.[3] Along with over 400 suspected links to terror detained there were also 6 American lives lost during the operation.[4]
