Jaafari visits Tel-Afer

The Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Monday visited Tel-Afer in an unannounced visit to the city which has been exposed to a military attack launched by more than 6,000 Iraqi soldiers with the support of 4,000 American soldiers to clear it from gunmen.

A spokeswoman for al-Jaafari's office said that the prime minister is currently existed in Tel-Afer, giving no more explanations on the reasons behind this visit at a time when the city is being exposed to a vast military operation that resulted so far in killing 156 gunmen and the detention of other 246.

However, AFP said that the gunmen in Tel-Afer "Evaporated from the city." It quoted officers in the American army that gunmen could not face the war machine which is composed of more than 10,000 soldiers. The military operation was attended by 40 tanks and a same number of armored vehicles.

Though the operation in Tel-Afer succeeded in ending the apparent presence of the gunmen, the US military leaders admitted that there is a lot to be done. The Iraqi police consider that the gunmen succeeded in fleeing to nearby mountains.