US forces work with former Saddam commandos

ABC/Reuters ^ | 11/28/04

[LibWhacker]

Twenty months after toppling Saddam Hussein, US troops still battling his followers in the heartland of Iraq's old arms industry are hitting back with a new weapon: ex-members of Hussein's special forces.

For five months, Iraqi police commandos calling themselves the Black Scorpions have been based with US marines in the region along the Euphrates south of Baghdad.

Roadside bombs, ambushes and kidnaps have turned the area into a no-go zone and earned it the melodramatic description "triangle of death".

"All of them were previously officers in the Iraqi army or special forces," said Scorpions commander Colonel Salaam Trad.

"But Saddam was dirty and no good for Iraq."

The performance of this SWAT team, as the Americans call it, could be a critical test of how US forces can hand over to Iraqis to meet their goal of withdrawing from a stable Iraq.

US officers in the area say they are increasingly optimistic.

"The hardest fighters we have are the former special forces from Saddam's days," said Colonel Ron Johnson, commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Praising their local knowledge and fighting skills, Colonel Johnson singled out one man who fought against him at Nasiriyah, the hardest battle of last year's brief war against Saddam's army.

"If I could have an Iraqi security force guy who's honest, reliable and dependable, it's worth five marines," he added.

Captain Tad Douglas, who leads almost daily raids with the Scorpions, says he believes it is a unique experiment that made use of the Iraqis' feel for their home province of Babylon.

"Ninety-five per cent of our intelligence is from the SWAT," he said. "They can put a guy in a cafe in the way we never could. They have a good finger on the pulse." Divided loyalties

US officers are reluctant to discuss how big the SWAT team is and Colonel Trad and Captain Douglas brush off questions on what they may or not have done to each other in last year's war.

"It doesn't matter to me what they did. They're staunchly anti-insurgent," Captain Douglas said.

"We just had to polish them up a bit," he said.

This week, Colonel Johnson has stepped up raids against insurgents in an operation codenamed Plymouth Rock, hoping to keep pressure on Sunni rebels after their rout at Fallujah to the north-west.

Of the 5,000-strong force in the region, which was once the heart of Saddam's arms industry and base of the Medina armoured division of the elite Republican Guard, more than 2,000 are Marines, 850 British soldiers and the rest Iraqi.

At the camp 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, the Scorpions are very visible, wearing the khaki jumpsuits of Marine special forces and black moustaches traditional in the Iraqi military.

Occupying powers have a long and patchy history of creating local units and Iraqi forces in other regions have had mixed success.

This month, thousands of police in the northern city of Mosul fled or changed sides when Sunni insurgents took charge.

Johnson acknowledges the loyalties of some Iraqis in his force may be divided but says they "want to be on the winning side".

He is confident that US-led troops can end what he sees as limited and decentralised violence by at most a few thousand disgruntled Saddam supporters and local bandits.

Iraqi police here have stuck to their posts despite killings of comrades in bomb attacks and murders of off-duty officers.

"They don't cut and run, despite their losses," Colonel Johnson said.

Colonel Trad shrugs off insurgent threats to himself and his family and says what he wants is "freedom, a new Iraq, peace".

- Reuters

[Flavius]

Already posted... But still cool... notice few blokes wit m4's on the upper right... Notice also that they are carrying SIG's not ak's apparently when they shoot they like to hit something as well..

Special Weapons SG 551-2 SP & P SWAT The rugged SG 551-2 SP and P SWAT rifles were developed to withstand the worst possible conditions and maintain accuracy and dependability.

These rifles have built in combat readiness with a low recoil, gas-operated loading system with a rotating bolt. Highly precise and durable, the SG 551-2 SP and P SWAT are designed for .223 ammunition and have a magazine capacity of 5, 20, or 30 rounds.

The SG 551-2 SP and P SWAT also feature an ambidextrous safety lever, a folding stock, a patented system of magazine stacking and easy changing, and are available in semi-automatic or select fire (1-3-full).

The SG 551-2 SP and P SWAT are for Law Enforcement or Government Agency Purchase only.

Specification Value Note Caliber 5.56mm/223 Rem Overall Length 32.8 inches Length w/ Stock Folded 23.9 inches Barrel Length 14.29 inches Rifling Twist 7 inches No. of Grooves 6 Sight Radius 18.35 inches Weight w/o Mag 7.5 lbs Cyclic Rate @ 700 Rnds/Min Mag Capacity 5/20/30 Rnds

[Roccus]

I'm getting a bit tired of this BS.
Col Johnson's remarks are very reminiscent of what we often heard from REMF's in the past. Not a sign of good leadership qualities. I wonder how the Marines feel about his statements.

[harpu]

I LOVE IT...these guys are killing off the 'foreign fighters' (aka; terrorists) in their homeland!

Hoooah!

[harpu]

"I'm getting a bit tired of this BS." LOOKING for the flyshit in the pepper, are we!?!

[Roccus]

I don't understand what you mean.

[Roccus]

OK, someone explained your analogy to me.
Is it good that these Iraqis are fighting and accomplishing their missions? Of course. It keeps our boys out of harms way. But to say that our Marines, who are fighting OUR battles are only 1/5 as good as some opportunistic raghead, I find galling.

[elfman2]

"Col Johnson's remarks are very reminiscent of what we often heard from REMF's in the past. Not a sign of good leadership qualities. I wonder how the Marines feel about his statements."

He is a Marine. And he’s in command of a unit that has been engaged since the battle for Najaf. His statement does leap out though. Consider the story source and then what possible context may have been removed.

[JimRed]

I took his meaning as referring to their ability to gather intelligence and infiltrate the enemy forces, and their local knowledge, not saying that they are superior combat troops.

[elfman2]

"But to say that our Marines, who are fighting OUR battles are only 1/5 as good as some opportunistic raghead, I find galling. "

The context is probably sniffing out bad guys. We can’t infiltrate to gather intell, can’t drive into a neighborhood without sirens going off, can’t spot suspicious people in a crowd, and can’t even enter the crowd without becoming super high value targets, requiring massive support. So when we patrol neighborhoods with armor and air, we have difficulty finding anything.

[Roccus]

Read your bio. Former squid here. I'm sure you are aware that after your service, the armed forces went through some MAJOR changes. Leadership took second place to administrative and organizational skills for the brass. For the life of me I cannot see any Marine worthy of The Corps. making this kind of statement. This is not the first time this has been posted and I have yet to see any correction or elucidation of this.

[Roccus]

It takes me so long to type that our posts are losing chronology. Intel wise they most certainly are a benefit. But this kind of comparison should not stand.

[elfman2]

"I'm sure you are aware that after your service, the armed forces went through some MAJOR changes. Leadership took second place to administrative and organizational skills for the brass."

The Marines were never corrupted. They were the one service that resisted long enough to remain untouched by the Clintons. Boxer (I think it was), frustrated with their senior leader’s foot-dragging to “reform”, called them Neanderthals.

I and others have explained the probable context of this statement. It’s not just gathering intell, but acting on it against this insurgency in this environment. I’m sure the majority of Marines' reaction to his statement would be something along the lines of, “No sh~t!”