Posted on 06/11/2005 8:45:54 PM PDT by CHARLITE
An ongoing sweep of the Iraqi capital has reduced car bombings but increased other kinds of attacks, a senior US military source said Friday.
"Car bombs are down, roadside bombs are down and we've captured around 1,000 suspects. But we can't declare victory," the source said of Baghdad's Operation Lightning.
Conversely, he said, there are more drive-by shootings. "We think that's another way, though much less effective, to keep up violence," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told a small group of journalists.
The idea for Operation Lightning was put forward by the interior and defence ministries, he said, and announced amid fanfare in late May, reportedly involving 40,000 Iraqi security forces backed by US troops. But the interior ministry later said there were no extra troops or police in the capital, simply that they were being deployed "in a more targeted way."
"The enemy is pretty frustrated and looking for the opportunity to have large-scale coordinated attacks. That could happen within the week, but it won't last weeks or even days," he said, because "they don't have public support."
"The insurgency is weaker than it was last year, weaker than a few months ago, but it's not about to wither up and die. By the nature of insurgency, it takes a long time." Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said Thursday the operation would be expanded to other cities and justified it by saying the country was living in "exceptional circumstances."
"All countries facing the same exceptional circumstances as Iraq will resort to similar measures," Jaafari told reporters. His spokesman, Leith Kubba, warned earlier this week that Iraqis had to bear the cost of the operation to root out insurgents from the capital, involving stepped-up checkpoints, raids, searches and arrests. "It's not an easy thing and there is a price to be paid," said Kubba.
"Fighting these criminal networks ... and eradicating them will not happen with a knockout blow, but rather it will be a slow death and it will happen with continuous efforts to isolate them."
Almost 700 people died in a frenzy of car bombings and other attacks in May, one of the bloodiest months since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Kubba said 887 suspects had been arrested in the operation since May 22. "The efficiency and frequency of attacks has gone down, meaning the number killed, and a number (of attacks) happened with no casualties and no damage," said the US source.
He said insurgency operations were concentrated in the Baghdad districts of Amiriyah, Ghazaliyah and Al-Dura as well as Abu Ghraib to the west and Mahmudiyah to the south, in the so-called triangle of death. The source also offered a rare insight into how insurgents operate on the ground.
"Most of the people making car bombs are (deposed leader Saddam Hussein's) people. They've been trained to do it, and they provide the bulk of command and control expertise, but there is no central command operation."
"Car bombs are constructed a few kilometres (miles) from where they're used, then you put someone in and point them in the right direction." Otherwise, he said, insurgents had to resort to the less reliable tactic of driving a car to a location, parking it and detonating remotely.
While there is no insurgent central command, the group of Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi "is giving general guidelines," and many suicide bombers were being duped into the task, he said. Around 50 non-Iraqi Arab fighters have been captured in the sweep, many of them signed up "for general jihad (holy war)" but then sent off to Iraq to do suicide attacks.
"Two were captured before their suicide bombs went off, and they claim they thought they were going to go fight on the ground. Then they say 'I came to the wrong jihad.'"
"In five or 10 cases police said (suicide drivers') hands were tied to the steering wheel, but there's little evidence of that after they go off.
As to when Iraqi forces would be able to take over security in the capital entirely, the source said there was no fixed date. "Iraqi forces can take over by next year, but that doesn't mean we can leave."
"It's event driven. Within one year the (Iraqi military) will be responsible for most of the terrain, and we'll be in support."
Baghdad is becoming less like a war zone and more like a typical capital city....such as Washington, DC.
(Tongue planted firmly in cheek.)
No, the media has just been twisting it that way because it suits their agenda.
The attack ratio country-wide has been dropping over the last few months.
Have I flamed you in the past? Do you ever read the daily roundup and news from the ME on FR. There is good stuff, along with the bad, on those threads. Great photos of our heroes...they're wonderful. I wouldn't spend 30 seconds reading or watching the lsm to get my news on Iraq.
I just watch what's going on around me.
You can't get more accurate coverage than that. ;-)
You guys don't think it makes by butt look fat, do you?
Yep, way too funny... new tag line!
Grrr... you beat me to it.
But hey, it's good enough to share, right? ;-)
Spppeeeewwwww.....coffee everywhere - ROTFLMBO!!!
Ahem...no dear, I think your butt looks just perfect. ;*)
We call that armed ghetto cruisin' in Detroit.....
As it stands right now, I'll take Baghdad over Detroit any day.
ALLEGRA - How are you? It took me a minute ... then the light bulb went off. I posted my last comments and went to bed. Had I known you were coming to the party I would have stayed longer. LOL! Stay safe FRiend.
Good term.
It's OK. It was bedtime where you are...daytime where I am. I'm used to being time-zone challenged. ;-)
It's gettng close to dinnertime now.
Ahhh...but there is usually someone up over here.
Have a great dinner and evening. Again, stay safe.
Location: Body Parts Re-assembly Plant, somewhere out there.
Foreman: ‘Hey, Jake! Wake up Guiseppi. Another order just came in.’
Jake: ‘I’ll get right on it, boss.’
Gus: ‘Whuzzup? (Yawn)
Jake: ‘Allah just sent over another basket case and we need to borrow the ‘nose’ again.’
Gus: ‘Sheesh! Not another one? Pinnochio is getting fed up with lending out his sniffer.’
Jake: ‘Can’t help it, Jake. The Osiris Curse, you know.
Gus: ‘Yeah, I know, I know. Somebody oughtta tell them dumb suckers about it before they volunteer.’
Jake: ‘I agree. But hey! The virgins don’t mind.’
They likely hold a fundraising bakesale in the lobby of the NY Times soon, to try to keep the insurgency afloat.
Them Zionists an their American puppets er pretty schlick, ain't they ;o)
;*)
Americans expected Bush to fight it out in Iraq to the bitter end. I wish we could press on to Iran, but with all the bad press on Abu 'Grab', and all the hype about how this amazing success is some kind of quagmire, I can understand if he doesn't. But let's not forget FDR's Nazi Quagmire. Americans expected Bush to fight it out in Iraq to the bitter end. I wish we could press on to Iran, but with all the bad press on Abu 'Grab', and all the hype about how this amazing success is some kind of quagmire, I can understand if he doesn't.
But let's not forget FDR's Nazi Quagmire. What is FDR's exit strategy for stopping the violence of nazis, neo-nazis, and their offspring: the skinheads?
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