US special forces gain ground in western Iraq: report

Agence France-Presse | March 28, 2003

[HAL9000]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Secretive US special operations troops have wrested control of a large part of western Iraq from President Saddam Hussein's regime, The Washington Post reported Friday.

US officers told the Post that special forces have established themselves 300 kilometers (200 miles) into Iraq from its western border with Jordan.

"I wouldn't say we control all the area, but it is territory that Saddam no longer controls," a senior official told the Washington daily.

The job of special forces is to prepare terrain for the arrival of troops. Many have been in Iraq doing just that for months, but entered Iraq in large numbers a day before the expiration of US President George W. Bush's deadline for Saddam to leave Iraq on March 19.

The prize in western Iraq is several airfields, especially the Mudaysis airfield 270 kilometers (170 miles) from the border with Jordan, as well as a cleared area in which larger US forces may operate with relative security.

Otherwise, much of the territory is thinly-populated desert.

The troops saw "some combat engagements" and may meet some "pockets of resistance," the official said without providing details to the Post.

The Post said that the special forces may be based in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, countries which do not wish to be identified as helping the United States.

"We are having very good success, we believe, in the west to limit the options of the regime on threatening its neighbors," Army Brigadier General Vince Brooks said at a press conference Wednesday in Qatar.

[MEG33]

A positive report!

[xm177e2]

With the South getting bogged down, we should watch what goes on in the West, and to a lesser extent the North.

[Steve Van Doorn]

"With the South getting bogged down"

Why do I keep hearing this? Bogged down? We have dug in and orginizing a base of operation as close as we can to baghdad without engaging directly. Bogged down sounds like we have problems or something?

[freepersup]

The best thing about this article is the fact that there are no embedded reporters involved in the operation. I just checked the source and it is a French agency. Go figure. I suspect it's a bit of psyops as well.

While it is mentioned that one purpose is to secure this theater of operations, in order to prevent strikes upon Iraq's neighbors, a second purpose is to secure and provide for, follow on forces into said airfields.

If the 4TH ID, isn't already in Iraq, via Turkey, then I suspect we could see them parceled out to the north, south, and west. I imagine a brigade size command would be sent to each quadrant. Hey- everybody's a planning expert around here... or is that everbody's a critic ?

Turn the worm, watch em squirm.

[Turin_Turambar]

We could bring the whole 3rd division around to the West, and then resupply out of there, with maybe a lot less aggravation. A couple of other advantages -- we could avoid emplacements of RG to the south, and we could score psyops points by avoiding Shi'a holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. We should claim that Saddam was planning on using these sites as his cannon fodder. (Maybe true).

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #5

The American troops to the south of Baghdad are drawing most of RG actions and media attention. But the hammer(s) will swing from the West. The forces from the West will cut off the northern area including Tikrit and swing down to Baghdad. The ones from the North will come down and crush those Iraqi combantants cut off by this action. The reinforcement from the Kuwait will crush those Iraqis cut off by forces now sitting to the south of Baghdad.

The provisional administrations should be set up in these areas. Then locals will rise up and hang all Ba'athist thugs they catch and finally celebrate on a massive scale, which will depress anti-war folks. This will also destabilize Baghdad.

Now that America decided to take more time to get things done thoroughly, this political dimension should be considered in my view.

[Tom Bombadil]

Bogged down

Katie Couric language.

[Jim Noble]

>>With the South getting bogged down<<

I think the plan is for Saddam to get his information from the same source as you do.

[over3Owithabrain]

Let's be honest here. I support the war and our leaders/planners too, but the fact is we are doing more fighting en route to Baghdad than hoped or expected. I don't believe that the extra 120k troops going over there now were all in the original plan, JMO.
Our guys are kicking ass to be sure, but some strategies have needed to be readjusted.

[Toskrin]

Exactly. It seems clear that the 3rd ID went as far as it could staying west of the Euphrates and stopped when they reached artillery range of the Republican Guard. They have attempted no offensive, and seem content to shell it out with them. Most of the action so far has been to protect bridgeheads across the Euphrates and the Marines who are trying to cut Mesopotamia in half.

The 3rd ID never had Baghdad in mind when they set out from Kuwait. It's obvious from the route they took.

[xm177e2]

I think the plan is for Saddam to get his information from the same source as you do.

I hope we're not telling everything to the mass media, but I fear it would be too difficult to cover up mass troop movements through urban areas. The going is slow for the Marines in Nasiriya, I don't think anyone can deny that.

I think the best way to plot our progress is in terms of (territory covered + enemies killed)/time. So even though the Marines are moving more slowly than the 3ID, they are making just as much progress because they are doing so much more killing. We are making progress, but we are not moving forward (hence the description of "bogged down").

I wonder if Rumsfeld thinks the extra forces in the West and North are capable of slamming into Baghdad with any real force; he's probably going to use them in the North of the country, or to encircle Baghdad, but he can't actually invade yet unless he has a tremendous trick up his sleeve, like one of the new experimental weapons.

[xm177e2]

Why do I keep hearing this? Bogged down? We have dug in and orginizing a base of operation as close as we can to baghdad without engaging directly. Bogged down sounds like we have problems or something?

I was referring to the Marines in Nasiriya and not the 3ID. They got where they were going in record time (quite literally, "record time," I don't think any other ground unit has advanced so far so quickly into enemy territory)

The only problems we're having is that we have to keep stopping to reload after we kill another batch of Iraqi suicide fanatics.

[xm177e2]

If the 4TH ID, isn't already in Iraq, via Turkey, then I suspect we could see them parceled out to the north, south, and west. I imagine a brigade size command would be sent to each quadrant. Hey- everybody's a planning expert around here... or is that everbody's a critic ?

Why would we break up a division like that? Isn't it best to keep units whole?

[xm177e2]

The 3rd ID never had Baghdad in mind when they set out from Kuwait. It's obvious from the route they took.

You mean the route that took them to the outskirts of Baghdad?

[A2J]

Why do I keep hearing this? Bogged down? We have dug in and orginizing a base of operation as close as we can to baghdad without engaging directly. Bogged down sounds like we have problems or something?

I agree!

Everyone thinks that because we're not sipping tea in one of Saddam's palaces, we're "bogged down."

Our guys are doing just fine and it's a matter of time until Baghdad will fall.

[A2J]

I don't believe that the extra 120k troops going over there now were all in the original plan, JMO.

Not true.

They have been training for some time and not just "called up" at the last minute to address an unexpected result of the campaign.

We knew all along this wouldn't be a cakewalk but that victory would be ours.

[Turin_Turambar]

Ultimately the goal has to be Baghdad; the intermediate goal is someplace near Baghdad suitable for putting pressure on it. The question is where that point is.

3ID did not head north along the Baghdad-Basra highway (which bypasses cities) and was the logical route. Instead, they went northwest, crossing the desert and stayed west of the Euphrates. They are now west of Baghdad, although they started out way to the east

Maybe that's just normal misdirection. I point out only that Baghdad's airport is about 10 mi west of the city, and beyond that a lot more maneuvering room. To the south are a bunch of holy sites, entrenched units, and partisans. And how come there are no embeds in the West? Hi, ho, Silver.

[Coop]

I support the war and our leaders/planners too, but the fact is we are doing more fighting en route to Baghdad than hoped or expected.

If so, then your hopes or expectations were incredibly unrealistic. The Iraqi military response has been less than I expected.

I don't believe that the extra 120k troops going over there now were all in the original plan, JMO.

So you think we just upped and mobilized, formed, equipped, and transported 120,000 people in three days, once we got "bogged" down, huh?

Let's be honest here.

No time like the present.

[xm177e2]

They didn't take a direct route not because they were attempting "misdirection" but because they wanted to bypass defenses and the like, to get to Baghdad faster. The whole goal of the 3ID was to get to Baghdad in record time, meet up with the other units racing there, and charge into the city as liberators while the Iraqi people rioted and slaughtered regime supporters in the streets.