Posted on 10/05/2005 1:46:27 PM PDT by MikeA
Special to World Tribune.com GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT.COM Wednesday, October 5, 2005 BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has encountered a new type of Sunni insurgent — a largely untrained teenage foreigner. Many such insurgents come from Saudi Arabia and Yemen as well as from such North African states as Algeria and Libya.
An Iraqi soldier leads suspected insurgents captured following clashes in Baghdad, to a van on Sept. 28. AP Photo/Samir Mizban --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The new insurgents still capable of deadly suicide attacks but are much less effective against coalition and Iraqi forces, U.S. commanders said. In many areas of the Sunni Triangle, they are even rejected by the local population. "The very interesting thing is that the younger foreign fighter that we're seeing now — very poorly trained," said Col. Robert Brown, commander of the U.S. Army 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division. "We would call them more like RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] for hire."
Brown, whose Stryker brigade operates in the Mosul area, told a Pentagon briefing on Sept. 14 that the teenaged foreign fighters began to arrive in northern Iraq last February.
He said the military captured Algerians, Libyans, Saudis and Yemenis, many of them as young as 15. About 70 percent of the insurgents who fought in Tal Afar near the Syrian border earlier this month were said to be foreigners. In an address to a Washington conference, investigative journalist Peter Bergen said foreign fighters launched 91 percent of suicide bomb attacks in Iraq.
"We did face well-trained foreign fighters prior to January elections," Brown said. "We have not faced well-trained foreign fighters since. Since February of this year until now, we have not seen any well-trained, in fact, very poorly trained foreign fighters. So whoever was training them before, I don't know, but apparently they've lost their support and they're not able to train them."
In August, the military captured a Libyan who they said had been brainwashed. Brown said the Libyan told U.S. interrogators that he thought he had been recruited to fight U.S. forces in Iraq. Instead, he was pressed to become a suicide bomber.
"They told him he was going to be a suicide martyr," Brown said. "He said he didn't want to do that."
The result of all this is a sharp decrease in the number of Sunni insurgency attacks in northern Iraq. Commanders said the drop began in June 2005 along with the disruption of the Al Qaida leadership.
"Nobody's taken over [Al Qaida] now," Brown said. "It's not a very popular position because if they step up, they get captured or killed. And so they're really disrupted, totally different."
At the same time, Sunnis in the north has turned against the insurgents. Commanders said that unlike 2004, Iraqi residents have begun to relay tips on insurgency plots and attacks in the Mosul area.
Brown said the number of mortar attacks in the Mosul province has dropped from 300 to six per month. U.S. and Iraqi forces have captured more than 142 mortar systems in 2005, he said.
Bergen said the Iraq war marked a training ground for Islamic insurgencies throughout the world. Widespread use of improvised explosive devices would serve as a model for future conflicts. "We have to prepare ourselves for blowback from the Iraq war," Bergen said.
Bergen, author of "Holy War Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama Bin Laden," said Bin Laden continues to lead Al Qaida and has grown in stature since 2001. Bin Laden's video messages have been extremely popular among Islamic insurgents, he said.
Now if only we could get the US media and the Democrats (same thing) to stop declaring defeat for the US in Iraq. It's obvious if all the terrorists can muster to go into Iraq are a bunch of moronic teenagers, that Al Qaeda has given up Iraq as a lost cause for them. But of course you won't hear that angle explored in the US media which is just rooting its heart out for a US defeat in Iraq.
It's tough for the Jihadists to motivate ordanary Muslims to go be suicide bombers against the very U.S. troops that are building and staffing schools and hospitals and providing electricity and purified water for the Iraqis.
Hate that for 'em...Not!
Good news. Also reminds me we haven't heard from Osama (may he rot in hell) for a long time.
Sounds like time to invade Syria and Iran then.
And by the way, this article further proves what I've been maintaining all along, that most of the "insurgents" aren't native Iraqis but are foreign terrorists.
Funny how we hear only about how ineffective and ill-trained Iraqi government forces are by the MSM, but nothing is said about the poor quality of Al Qaeda's forces that can't even stand and fight but have to rely on teenagers to engage in sissy stand-off tactics like roadside bombs and booby traps. Why don't we hear anything about the poor quality of the Al Qaeda forces in Iraq but in fact they're made to seem like a brilliant and invincible fighting machine by the America-hating media?
This article proves patience is winning the day in Iraq and that we have significantly degraded the enemy and their will to fight in Iraq. And as the Iraqis see we're serious about finishing the job, more and more are stepping up to the plate to turn in the terrorists and actively working to oppose them. Thanks President Bush for your wisdom and courage in seeing us through this conflict and ignoring the defeatism and surrender demands of the liberal left.
One thing about suicide bombers - they can't be veterans.
Even the Japanese, whose worship of suicide was culturally ingrained, ran out of kamikaze volunteers.
This war was over before it started but the LSM gave the insurgency added impetus to continue fighting. God damn bastards have blood on their hands. The MSM is IMHO the most dangerous entity facing the US today. The fourth estate is acting like a fift column.
And the leftist media is nowhere to be found.
Where's "right wing" fox on this?
Iraqis have even turned against the insurgents before the American Left have!
eh...just the Islamic version of the Hitler Youth....
I'm thinking it's because many of those older Al Queda fighters are DEAD!
We all know this article can't be true. After all we've been hearing for months now from the demo/socalists and their partners in the LSM that our actions in Iraq have made us much less safe since all of these "hardend" insurgents are getting so much training and experience in urban warfare that they're likely to come to the US and kick our asses!
Not yet.
We still haven't finished our business in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But I do hope we have assets in both Iran and Syria that are actively working to undermine both those countries' governments.
That'd definitely make our jobs easier if those countries fell from within.
The fourth estate is acting like a fifth column.
I was impressed by that one-liner too. That was really well-said.
"Here, kid, here's an RPG. You point it and pull this here trigger. See those guys over there? Those are U.S. Marines. They're wimps, kid. Just you trot over there and shoot 'em. Here, I'll hold your wallet..."
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Sounds like time to invade Syria and Iran then.
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Did you miss the "Skull and Bones" briefing? Why do you think we tricked the MSM into creating panic over "Bird Flu" and "West Nile Virus"? Look for the first big outbreak in Syria next week.
We won't seed it into Iran for another month.
Sheesh, pay attention.
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