Posted on 03/12/2004 5:14:51 PM PST by neverdem
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 11 — American forces arriving in Iraq are being singled out for kidnapping by insurgents, according to senior military officers. The insurgents, they say, may make a symbolic spectacle of abducted soldiers or use captives to negotiate the release of Iraqi prisoners.
Military commanders are also concerned about a possible new terrorist tactic: posing as police officers. Two American civilians and their translator were killed Tuesday, and initial reports indicated that their attackers were dressed in Iraqi police uniforms.
The warning on kidnapping is being given to Marine Corps and Army ground forces rotating into Iraq. The military officers say the information has come from a number of intelligence discoveries, though they would specify only one: a seized letter the Americans say was written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian suspected of ties to Al Qaeda.
The highly protective measures now in place for American troops in Iraq are considered sufficient, commanders say, adding that security measures are constantly being reviewed. Some 110,000 American troops are rotating into Iraq.
Security briefings for arriving troops include a stern reminder to never walk or travel alone.
"The terrorists want to capture one of our soldiers," a senior American military officer said. "It's always harder to take two."
At a news conference on Thursday, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior commander in Iraq, spoke about the possibility that terrorists were posing as Iraqi police officers.
"We are very concerned about it," he said. There are no indications yet, he said, that the attackers who killed the two Americans and their translator on Tuesday were actually Iraqi policemen.
Military officers declined to disclose the information other than the Zarqawi letter, which American officials in Iraq said was found in mid-January in the possession of a Qaeda suspect arrested in Iraq. One passage in the letter, which was translated by American officials, broadly describes a strategy of kidnapping American troops.
"As you know, these are the biggest cowards that God has created and the easiest target," it says. "And we ask God to allow us to kill and detain them so that we can exchange them with our arrested sheiks and brothers."
Army and Marine Corps commanders say that arriving troops express concern about the threat of kidnapping, but that, as one officer put it, any anxiety will diminish "once they're inside the country, once they've got their feet on the ground."
"You drive down the road and you've got a gun in your hands, and you've got more than enough for a fair fight," the officer said.
The insurgent threat in Iraq is evolving from one of small-unit firefights with supporters of the former government, many of whom have formal military training, to terrorist-style suicide bombings that wreak spectacular violence.
The kidnapping or capture of American troops would also have a powerful effect, military officers warn. In 1993, images of two dead American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, shocked Americans and deterred the United States for many years from deploying ground troops.
That was then, when we had a dope smoking, draft dodging, skirt chasing, yellow spined COWARD posing as our Commander-in-Chief. Today, should it occur again, rest assured that we will attack, with extreme force and prejudice! THIS President is no coward, and if the Islamofascist think (and they don't) that Bush will behave as Klintoon did under the same situation, they should pray to Allah for mercy, for that is the only place they will find it!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.