Yahoo carried this story yesterday:

About 100 miles west of Anbar's capital city of Ramadi, insurgents blew up two suspension bridges on roads leading to Jordan and Saudi Arabia, a police intelligence officer said on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

There has been no further news throughout the day. There has been speculation that the bridges concerned are vital, and CENTCOM and MNF-I have been reluctant to give details.

Aswat al Iraq followed up with this report later yesterday:

Gunmen blew up two bridges on the highway near 160km region west of Ramadi on Friday morning using explosive charges," the source, who preferred not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

"The operation came one day after a forum convened on reconstructing Anbar, which aimed at reconstructing the province's cities which were partially or totally destroyed during the violent acts," he added.

The second forum on reconstructing the province kicked off yesterday morning [Thursday] with the participation of the two vice presidents, Tareq al-Hashemi and Adel Abdul Mahdi, in addition to Burham Saleh and the Minister of State for National Security Shirwan al-Waili.

The province's infrastructure was destroyed in armed attacks in 2005.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Burham Saleh said during the forum that a total of 50 million USD had been allocated to compensate those harmed in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, in addition to another 70 million USD for reconstructing the city.

The incident raises to five the number of bridges which have been destroyed on the highway in Anbar since the beginning of 2007.
The 160km region is located in Anbar's desert, 270 km west of Baghdad.

This is interesting news because it shows how desperate the enemy is becoming. In their panic over the report next week to Congress about how well the surge escalation is doing they have begun destroying the bridges they use when they smuggle foreign jihadis into the country.

Or something like that.

A different analysis might be that this is a closing of two major roads connecting Western Iraq with Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Both roads could be considered useful for both logistic and troop and equipment movement, moving - erm – either in or out. Losing these two bridges would impede rapid movement - in either direction.

Some people believe it might be more important to rapidly move people and equipment out rather than in.

The War of the Bridges series

The Bridges of Iraq

The War of the Bridges

Another Bridge Attack

Baghdad Bridges Falling Down

The Daily Bridge Attack

Balad Bridge

Pitrokimiwiat Bridge

Thiraa Dilja Bridge

Two Bridges in Anbar