Posted on 06/26/2004 5:35:33 PM PDT by KriegerGeist
New Iraqi police fight US troops who trained them
By Damien McElroy in Baghdad | Sunday Telegraph UK | June 26, 2004
With american fighter jets and helicopters buzzing the skies overhead, an officer in Iraq's new police force approaches a group of fighters on Fallujah's front lines with an urgent call to arms.
"I need a man who can use an RPG," says Omar, who wears the uniform of a first lieutenant. Four hands shoot up and a cry rings out: "We are ready." He chooses a young man, Bilal, and they drive to an underpass on the outskirts of the city.
There, on Highway One, an American Humvee is driving east. Bilal aims and fires his rocket propelled grenade, turning the vehicle into a smoking, twisted, metal carcass. The fate of its occupants is unknown.
First Lt Omar is sworn to uphold the law and fight the insurgency that threatens Iraq's evolution into a free and democratic state. Instead, he is exploiting his knowledge of US tactics to help the rebel cause in Fallujah.
"Resistance is stronger when you are working with the occupation forces," he points out. "That way you can learn their weaknesses and attack at that point."
An Iraqi journalist went into Fallujah on behalf of the Telegraph on Wednesday, a day on which an orchestrated wave of bloody rebel attacks across the country cost more than 100 lives.
Inside the Sunni-dominated town, he met police officers and units of the country's new army who have formed a united front with Muslim fundamentalists against the Americans, their resistance focused on al-Askeri district on the eastern outskirts of the town.
That morning, US marines had taken up "aggressive defence" positions on one side of Highway One. On the other side, militant fighters were dug in, ready for battle.
Their preparations were thorough. Along the length of a suburban street in al-Askeri, they had dug foxholes at the base of every palm tree. Scores of armed men lined the streets. Most had scarves wrapped around their heads but others wore the American-supplied uniform of Unit 505 of the Iraqi army, and carried US-made M-16 rifles. Yet more were dressed in the olive green uniforms worn by Saddam Hussein's armed forces. Since April, when a US offensive failed to crush an uprising by Islamic fighters and Ba'athist loyalists, Fallujah has been effectively a no-go area for American troops.
A newly formed, 2,000-strong force known as the Fallujah brigade, led by a Saddam-era general, Mohammed Latif, was supposed to disarm the rebels. Instead, the town remains a hotbed of resistance. Now, once again, US military pressure is being brought to bear.
Three separate air strikes have been launched on houses in the town in recent days, aimed at killing an al-Qaeda leader believed to be based in Fallujah. The Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is believed to be behind the wave of kidnappings and terror attacks across Iraq.
US officials say that they narrowly missed their target on Friday, in their most recent strike on a house where he was suspected of hiding. Up to 25 people were killed.
On the ground in al-Askeri, tension was once again rising under the US attacks. Strangers had to seek permission from the "district commander", a local imam called Sheikh Yassin who controls a broad coalition of Saddam loyalists and Islamic radicals, to move beyond the rebel lines. The sheikh, who has emerged as the neighbourhood strongman since the uprising against American occupation, has used his following to unite all strands of resistance under his leadership.
His radio buzzed constantly as scouts, moving incognito in private cars, sent in reports about US positions around the suburb. The ground shook as F-16 Falcons dropped precision-guided 500lb bombs on rebel positions near the football stadium, half a mile away.
US commanders have spoken of their frustration over the Fallujah Brigade's failure to rein in rebels, and the ineffectiveness of the political deal struck with local tribes in April. "We've been prepared to pull the plug on it three or four times, but each time we detect a faint heartbeat," a senior marine officer said. To Sheikh Yassin, the supposedly anti-rebel brigade is a useful tool, providing support for his fighters. "We respect the Fallujah brigade - it never interferes against us," he says. He openly acknowledges that his coalition was a marriage of convenience, bringing together the secular Saddam faithful and Muslim fundamentalists.
The imam, who wants Iraq to be governed by Islamic law, points to one of his companions - a colonel in the disbanded Iraqi army - and asks why he is still fighting.
The colonel is blunt. "Fallujah is the starting point of the return of the Ba'ath Party," he says. "Our comrades in Baghdad and other provinces are joining our struggle. Here already we are free. No one can touch us." In violence yesterday, a car bomb in the predominantly Shia city of Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad, killed at least 15 people according to the Arabic satellite news channel al-Jazeera.
Six guerrillas and several other people were killed in Baquba, north of Baghdad, when rebels blew up the local party headquarters of Ayad Allawi, Iraq's prime minister, and attacked a moderate Shia political party's office. Another car bomb killed a man in the Kurdish city of Arbil.
Gee I hope they arent using those new Glock 17s we taxpayers just bought them...against our guys...
Terrorism aside, Fallujah is rapidly becoming a reconstituted Taliban-style stronghold, complete with subjugation of women and severe penalties (including execution) for transgressing islamic law. This is new even for Iraq.
bump
I don't know the situation on the ground in Iraq. It does seem to me that if a foreign nation occupied the United States there would be the tendency for any quislings aiding the occupation force to be hated. There would also be the tendency for forces to two face the occupation forces and throw in with people as insurgents against the occupation forces. Allawi is talking of activating the Iraqi army. I don't think we can trust most of them. An occupation army cannot depend on native mercenaries for support. I can never recall a situation in history when native troops helped occupation forces subjucate their own people, except under the duress of superior occupation forces.
You're right. I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. But the withdrawal made me sick. We have unfinished business. I don't want to hear any more excuses. If they don't finish it this time, they are inviting a countrywide rebellion they may not be able to put down.
There is nothing merciful about leaving armed Baathists alive. Our war is not with Iraq, our war is with the Baath and the terrorists. To leave them in control of territory is a surrender no matter how you package it. If you don't believe it, just read the coverage in the arab press.
No, we don't. The Iraqis have to finish them and they will finish them completely in a way that we can not because of "world opinion".
I'm not sure it was a mistake to pull back. There was getting to be too much uproar about the battle. The media was misportraying it and making it sound like we were slaughtering innocents. When the Iraqis go in, there will be no cameras, there will be no reporters, there will just be death to the "insurgents". Just remember, the new leaders of Iraq all survived Saddam, they did that by being smart and tough. Let's wait until a week or so after 6/30 before we say this was a failure.
Not remotely true. The number of Marines killed in the siege of Fallujah was more like 10% of that. Where'd you get that 100 number from?
pretty dam sad when the ones your training turn on you.
they are trying to train them to protect themselves and their country.
Those were not all killed in Fallujah. There was violence in many areas during the same period, roadside bombs, etc.
I'm talking about Marines killed in the Fallujah fighting. That number is roughly 10.
The left is not above fabricating stories in an attempt to undermine US troop morale. Oh yeah, F-- the Irish.
I am counting the entire April offensive in that Al Anbar region west of Baghdad. It was all one operation more or less. You are understating the number even strictly counting only Fallujah. In any case, I just counted the ones that have locations listed in that locale: 87.
I don't recognize a couple of the town names so I may be missing some.
And I am not counting the ones KIA in Al Anbar near the border with Syria, since those events were separate from the action around Fallujah.
And I should've said March/April operation, since it actually started in March.
Whether this story is crap or not, Falleujah should have been leveled if necessary. "You have 36 hours to evacuate all women and children. No adult males allowed to leave. We're going house to house and we're going to seize every weapon we find and kill anyone carrying one. Put on a happy face folks because anyone that looks crosseyed at us, will be dead. Anyone shoots so much as a spitball at us the Air Force will level the entire block. Resistance will result in a smoking hole in the ground. We mean business, no more Mr. Nice Guy. This means YOU."
I wouldn't agree that it was all one offensive. I wouldn't count the 12 Marines killed in the one Ramadi ambush, for example.
Regarding Fallujah, you said "over 100 marines were KIA just to barely claw into the city..". That implies that we lost 100 Marines in trying to take Fallujah, and only barely made it into the city despite those losses. That's misleading and untrue. It makes it appear that the battle to take Fallujah was nearly hopeless. It wasn't. We had lost roughly 10 Marines (that's the number I remember reading. If it's wrong, it's only slightly off) and had taken about 1/3 of the city. If we had pushed on then, instead of pulling out, yes we would have lost more Marines, but we could have taken the city 2 months ago. Holding the city would be difficult, of course. There would probably still be repeated potshots. But at least we wouldn't have handed a victory to the jihadists and Baathists.
Whoa . . . We took almost all of that city. The Marines held it, except for some slums in the Northwest and Northeast corners. Don't make it sound like we were just barely hanging on to some shacks on the outskirts.
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