Posted on 11/23/2006 4:28:50 PM PST by jmc1969
Sunni Arab militant groups suspected of ties to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia have established training camps east of Baghdad that are turning out well-disciplined units willing to fight American forces in set-piece battles, American military commanders said Thursday.
American soldiers fought such units in a pitched battle last week in the village of Turki, 25 miles south of this Iraqi Army base in volatile Diyala Province, near the Iranian border. At least 72 insurgents and two American officers were killed in more than 40 hours of fighting. American commanders said they called in 12 hours of airstrikes while soldiers shot their way through a reed-strewn network of canals in extremely close combat.
Officers said that in this battle, unlike the vast majority of engagements in Diyala, insurgents stood and fought, even deploying a platoon-sized unit that showed remarkable discipline and that one captain said was in “perfect military formation.”
The insurgents had built a labyrinthine network of trenches in the farmland, with sleeping areas and significant weapons caches. Two anti-aircraft guns had been hidden away.
Insurgents were apparently able to establish a training camp after American combat forces moved out of the area in the fall of 2005, Colonel Poppas said.
Sunni Arab militants there belong to the fundamentalist Wahabbi strain of Islam and are believed to be led, at least in part, by a man known as Abu Abdul Rahman, an Iraqi-Canadian who moved from Canada to Iraq in 1995 after marrying a woman from Turki, the colonel said.
Abu Abdul Rahman was mentioned on some jihadist Web sites as a possible contender for the leadership of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia after the group’s founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in an American airstrike in Diyala Province last summer, said Capt. Mike Few, commander of A Troop, Fifth Squadron.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Why is the village of Turki not a smoldering heap of rubble? Time to stop the surgical warfare and pacify the country.
Wahabbi, state church of our friends, the Saudis.
Good to hear it. They stand and fight, they die. That game's all ours and second place is a real bad place to be.
With a kill ratio of 36 to 1(against),I for one am less than impressed with their so-called higher level of training.They are fools to think they can match our forces in a straight fight.
Do we have satellites or not?
More Vietnamization Thanks to the Times.. Oh at least they admit their are possible Al-Qaeda in Iraq now..... Why can the NYT post an article that Blames Bush for leaking documents taken from Iraq that expose Nuclear technology but refuse to acknowledge the same Documents that showed Saddam was recruiting Suicide terrorists for strikes in the US in March of 2001. NYT is LIBERAL PRAVDA
Ever notice how these raggedy-ass terrorist types that always get their heads handed to them by American soldiers, who cannot shoot straight, have a kill ratio of 100 of them for every one of ours, and who are only dangerous to unarmed civilians are always described as "highly trained militants"?
Why is that, other than jounalist wet-dreams?
We're reaping what we've sown. Had our political leaders not hamstrung our military by PC rules of engagement, inadequate equipment and not enough troops, we wouldn't be in this mess right now. It would have been wrapped up long ago. I notice that Iran, NK, Syria and Venezuela, among others, don't pay any heed to "worldwide public opinion"; they just plow ahead, doing what's in their own best interests. Once upon a time, the USA acted in its own interests as well. (Harry Truman, where are you, now that we need you?)
Now: with the country being continuosly overflown and observed from above, one would think that "establish[ing] training camps east of Baghdad that are turning out well-disciplined units" would be problematic - the camp would have to move from a place to place all the time. What gives?
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Wow. There's some real warfare going on there right now.
We control the air and I hope we are taking full advantage of that. Bomb these "training camps" into the Stone Age.
"With a kill ratio of 36 to 1(against),I for one am less than impressed with their so-called higher level of training.They are fools to think they can match our forces in a straight fight."
Not to take anything away from our troops, but from a purely analytical approach, one has to consider the role of twelve hours of airstrikes.
It should be the resolved position of the United States to fight with calculated fury all elements of the Iraqi counter-revolutionary insurgent forces. al-Maliki should be put on notice. It is only through American resolve, political and military power that he is where he is. Without the United States, there is no free Iraq and there is no al-Maliki, nor freedom of any sort in Iraq. al-Sadr should be reminded that we can have his carcass, bullet riddled and burned black, anytime we deem it in our best interests. Those who are in a position to effect violence in Iraq should be made aware that they, and their entire families, could become martyrs in their lost causes.
Political Correctness is not a recipe for victory.
they dont have to win just have enough survivors for the msm to proclaim their victory
"Ever notice how these raggedy-ass terrorist types that always get their heads handed to them by American soldiers, who cannot shoot straight, have a kill ratio of 100 of them for every one of ours, and who are only dangerous to unarmed civilians are always described as "highly trained militants"?
Why is that, other than jounalist wet-dreams?"
Clearly the left wants this to turn into a Vietnam situation.
Recall that after the US fled in Vietnam and turned the fighting to the south, the US also left a force without air support.
The left might be able to control the purse strings and deny the same to the new Iraqui goverment after a US retreat.
Not only does the left want it to turn into a Vietnam situation, it looks like they have the power to do so, not only within the government but through their media.
Exactly. In spite of the author's fawning admiration for the gallant heroes of Al Qaeda, the facts are clear, the same as in Afghanistan: When they stand and fight against Western militaries, the terrorists die in very large numbers.
Way, way, WAY too late.
The Iraqi government will be left without decient heavy weapons or without an airforce if we leave early.
And, it is time we start building a real Iraqi airforce again. We can base the Air Force in Kurdistan.
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