The offensive consisted of a number of joint Coalition and Iraqi Army operations throughout northern Iraq as well as in the southern Baghdad Belts.

[Phantom Phoenix] will synchronize lethal and non-lethal effects to exploit recent security gains and disrupt terrorist support zones and enemy command and control...[The operation will include] a series of joint Iraqi and Coalition division and brigade level operations to pursue and neutralize remaining al-Qaeda in Iraq and other extremists.

[3][4] Following the communications blackout, American troops began a major offensive to drive Sunni insurgents from strongholds in the Diyala and Salah ad-Din provinces.

Despite the preemptive measures, insurgents are believed to have gained prior knowledge of the operation plans and pulled out before the Americans arrived.

It has been speculated by MNF-I commanders that militants may have been tipped off by communications leaks or by the visible movements of troops and machinery preceding the operation.

[3] Seven American battalions, accompanied by Iraqi Army units, advanced into a 110-square-mile (280 km2) area in the northern Diyala River valley.

[citation needed] By day 16, Coalition troops cleared a key route between Baghdad and Baqubah of improvised explosive devices.

[10] On day 42, Iraqi army and police forces backed by US aircraft and fighters from local anti-Al-Qaida Awakening Council group carried out a raid at dawn on insurgent hideouts on the open areas near Lake Tharthar, 120 km north of Baghdad in Salah ad-Din province, on Saturday, killing 10 suspected insurgents, including a local leader, and capturing 4 others, a provincial police officer said.

Abdul Basit al-Nissani, a local leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq network, blew himself up after he was surrounded by the security forces while crossing a small river, he said.

A day after Iraqi reinforcements began arriving in the region, five US soldiers were killed when an American patrol was ambushed in the city.

The offensive also included operations in the cities of Tal Afar and Kirkuk, also major urban centers in the north of the country.

Operations were also conducted in the north-western Jazeera Desert between Mosul and the Syrian border, focusing on the towns of Baji and Sinjar.

On day three of the offensive two B-1 bombers and four F-16 fighters carried out massive air-strikes on Arab Jabour, a Sunni district on the southern outskirts of Baghdad.

Arab Jabour, a mainly rural district, was one of a few areas of Baghdad that remained under the control of insurgents after Operation Law and Order the previous year.

[15] The 40 targets hit in the huge barrage of air-strikes consisted mainly of large weapons caches, explosives, tunnels and powerful roadside bombs buried deep underground – key defensive elements for Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents reported Army Col. Terry Ferrell.

[16] On day 14, US warplanes pounded suspected Al-Qaeda havens and weapons caches in Arab Jabour for the third time since the operation began, hitting more than 30 targets in a 35-bomb blitz, the military said.

During the initial phase of the operation, the 3rd BCT of the 3rd Infantry Division established a new Combat Outpost in Salman Pak, an area that was a stronghold of the Republican Guard before the war.

Coalition forces also established a government center in the area and introduced hundreds of thousands of dollars in micro-grants to rebuild local markets.

[18] On 15 March, the Iraqi Army, with support from a US Military transition team from the 3rd Infantry Division, launched Operation Marne Rugged in the Tigris River valley southeast of the Arab Jabour and Salman Pak regions.