AP: U.S. Marines Wall in Iraqi City With Sand ~ near Syria border....

RUTBAH, Iraq (AP) - U.S. Marines used to patrol the streets of this city near the volatile Syrian border. Now they've penned it in with a wall of sand, leaving only three ways in or out.

While causing discomfort to the townspeople, the military says it is an effective barrier to insurgents and frees up troops for use in other parts of restive Anbar province in western Iraq.

The Marines ringed Rutbah with a 10.5-mile-long berm, seven feet high and 20 feet wide, in mid-January and reduced their presence to checkpoints at the three entrances that also are manned by a few dozen Iraqi soldiers.

The move was forced by a major U.S. effort to make the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah a showplace of American-Iraqi cooperation. That leaves fewer Marines to patrol a region with close tribal and economic ties to neighboring Syria, which Washington has accused of letting militants slip over the border.

The sand wall is only "an intermediate solution," said Marine Lt. Col. Robert Kosid, whose 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion is responsible for Rutbah and several thousand square miles of desert around it.

"I think the long-term success of Rutbah involves a permanent presence in the city," said Kosid, who was also based here on his previous tour in Iraq.

But there aren't any Iraqi forces available now. Rutbah's corrupt police force was disbanded last year, and hundreds of Iraqi soldiers that had been in the area were moved north in November for a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation around Qaim.

Sitting 230 miles west of Baghdad, Rutbah joins Tal Afar, Mosul and Samarra as cities where the U.S. military has tried to block outsiders and impede insurgent mobility by erecting large sand walls with bulldozers.

So far, the berm has been a tactical success, helped by rainstorms that have turned the surrounding territory into impassable mud. Roadside bombings sharply dropped from 29 a month to just five since the wall was built, Marines say. Military supply trucks using a nearby highway have been relatively unmolested lately.

Rutbah's streets are lined with impressive villas even though the town is devoid of natural resources and arable farmland. Its 20,000 people have thrived by taking a cut from smugglers moving goods along ancient routes that snake through Iraq from Jordan and Syria.

Though attacks in the city have been relatively low by comparison to other parts of western Iraq, the Marines suspect some of its smuggling income is being used to finance insurgent operations throughout Anbar.

Some Marines say the checkpoints are effective at weeding out insurgents without resorting to force.

"It's a more methodical way to use (checkpoints) to clear towns instead of going right in to sweep it," Sgt. Spencer Biegel of Albany, Ore., said as he helped inspect cars at a checkpoint.

More than a dozen wanted suspects have been caught at Rutbah's checkpoints, he said.

But residents face big headaches getting in and out of town, routinely having to wait one to three hours because of bottlenecks at the checkpoints.

About 500 vehicles pass through the busiest checkpoint each day, and Marines cut traffic from two lanes to one whenever there is a roadside bombing.

"As insurgent activity rises, we have to put on stringent controls," said Capt. Phil Laing of Seligman, Ariz., who commands the Marines manning the checkpoints. "The intent is not to punish Rutbah."

In response to civilian complaints, the Marines moved the berm to put a local gas station within the wall. They also regularly usher water trucks and medical vehicles to the front of inspection lines. A U.S.-funded hospital for the city is just weeks from completion.

Marines survey people entering town to find out about their needs, and to ask for tips on local insurgents.

As for the town's suspected role in financing insurgent operations, Kosid said there is little the Marines can do until Iraq's government establishes a security presence.

"If Rutbah is the financial center that we think it is, it's going to be hard to peel the onion on that one," he said. "To be really effective with the smuggling aspect, you need more of an investigatory capacity where you can peel the layers back."

"How does a wall of sand stop anyone from walking into town?"
A good question. Perhaps a not to unreasonable answer. Ar Rutbah is located on the main e/w road grid between the Jordanian border and its eastern branchout going to Qaem and down to Ar Ramadi.
As one views it at various levels of resolution on sat maps, one finds it is quite isolated, other then an elaborate geometry of roads, a somewhat semi beltway, some loops, parallel e/w chunks of roads in close proximity to the city, and a number of roads that go on various angles on a Northern bearing into Syria some 60 miles to the north, there is little else in the area.
Think very remote. Star Wars one at that space port, where "we don't serve their kind in here".
As the article had indicated it is a gathering point for insurgent activities. I don't think at this point I would be breaking any form of SECOPS, but also in the equation is/was the fact that at the lower tip of the Jordanian/Iraqi border is a distinct border notch,located on Saudi Arabian land. A few roads animated from this area to meet up with the main road grid west of the city by some 40 miles or so, in the facinity of where the infamouse main airfield H1 is located (they is where the goons fired chemical tipped scuds into Israel during the first Gulf War).
Now the main entry point for the goons from the west was via this remote grid. Also those coming in from Syria in this far western corner of Iraq had the road coming down toward Ar Rutbah that leads directly to Damascus, plus a few other almost bearing 360 roads.
Now as the article mentions, we have had a limited Marine force stationed in this sector. Their AOR, extended for many thousands of square miles. When my nephew Steve was there with the 2LAR BN prior to this 1LAR BN taking over, last year, they where on 24/7 patrols along these road grids, the small scattered villages with say a 100 miles of Ar Rutbah as well as Rutbah as the article speaks of.
OK I am almost there if you will bear with me a bit.
These Marines have to patrol a huge swath of space. And quite frankly you could have had a division composed of all mobile battalions and you would not be able to effective lock down such a vast area, based on it's geography.
My nephew many times went into the city, where they had finger printed and Iris scanned profiles of everyone into a database. But so many legal entries moved through this hub one simply could not control it. Think of all Iraqi that traveled these roads and would stop at the city. Tankers and other forms of commercial vehicles as well as private traffic.
To the east by some distance, from the city, there are also located a number of phosphate and uranium mines. Which I believe all now totally abandoned could offer refuge to Ali Babba in transit mode.
So unlike say along the northern Euphrates river area, where in some areas one had at most one road route on either side of the river, leading through those many now easy recognized cites/towns, one was much better able to control traffic and in doing so, once under control, minimize the insurgents freedom of movement.
Not so with ar Rutbah. So as we read, they finally figured they would enclose it with the berm.
OK. So the only way over the berm is to walk. I will not guess on quantity of current air support, e.g. roving choppers on prescribed patterns are involved but now, one could patrol the berm areas. Take note there are now Iraqi troops in this area as well, actually had been last year, so one can with sniper scopes, binoculars, other visual aid, air patrols, spot anyone trying to bridge the berm at the crest.
Non insurgents are not going to be walking outside the city, for heaven knows how many meters, and walking over that berm, why would they, there is no place to walk to other then dozens of miles of desert some flat, some hilly etc..
So with my long winded writing perhaps one can see what a cute idea this was. They in effect have ruined zman's and locals' ability to use this city hub as a base for vehicles to transport goons into the interior, as had long been the case. I am only guessing but if thorough body searches of all are also part of the process for vehicles entering/living, then the bags of money and any weapons etc., also are now cut off. In essence neurtalizing this cities ability to support the insurgency.

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