Posted on 06/11/2003 4:15:39 PM PDT by demlosers
THULUIYA, Iraq, June 11 — American forces completed their largest combat operation in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad today, with more than 3,000 soldiers backed by fighter jets, armored vehicles and patrol boats surrounding a 30-square mile peninsula north of Baghdad that is said to harbor gunmen attacking American soldiers. Two brief gun battles erupted when American forces entered this farming town early Monday, American commanders said. Four Iraqis died, four Americans were wounded and 375 Iraqi men were detained. Iraqi civilians said American soldiers handcuffed women and children, beat one man to death and allowed another to die of a heart attack, charges American officials called "absolutely false."
The sheer scope of the operation — with pilotless drones, F-15 fighters and AC-130 gunships circling overhead as thousands descended on the area — suggested the serious a new American drive to quell a nascent resistance movement in the Sunni Muslim-dominated areas north and west of Baghdad. The area, known as the "Sunni triangle" was a bedrock of support for Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim himself. The operation, named "Peninsula Strike," is being carried out by a brigade task force, officials say. An estimated 4,000 troops or more are directly or indirectly involved. (A similar number of troops have been deployed to Fallujah. But they are involved in a deployment that will extend over several months, not a single operation.)
The aim of the operation is detain Saddam Hussein loyalists, former intelligence services officials, Ba'ath Party former officials and other groups who have take sanctuary in a peninsula east of Balad.
The Americans are also looking for caches of money, which they believe are stashed in the area and are being used to fund anti-American operations in Iraq. Finding and seizing these funds is an important objective. And they are also searching for weapons.
"We are going to clean this place out," one American official said.
Gunmen have been using increasingly sophisticated techniques to attack American convoys in this area, using flares, lights in houses and lookouts to time attacks, American officers said. After weeks of low casualty rates, 10 Americans soldiers have been killed and dozens wounded in the last fifteen days.
Col. Frederick Rudesheim, the commander of the operation, said that he believed a core group of 30 to 50 men who planned and carried out ambushes over dozens of square miles of territory north of Baghdad were captured. Initial interrogations and other evidence suggested that the group included former Iraqi intelligence officials and members of Saddam's Fedayeen. The colonel, who commands the Fourth Infantry Division's Third Brigade, said he had not yet determined whether groups here were working with other Saddam loyalists in the restive cities of Falluja and Tikrit, the scene of attacks that have killed four Americans over the last two weeks. "We have made connections," he said, referring to linking captured men to attacks north of Baghdad. "But I can't tell you if it is isolated or widespread." The 4th Infantry Division has a huge sector that extends from Tikrit to Kirkuk to the Iranian border. The American assessment is that Tikrit, Kirkuk and Baiji, which are in this sector, are relatively secure. But the American military command has been concerned about resistance in the Balad, Taji and Baqubah areas.
The Army believed that much of resistance is supported, funded and coordinated by anti-American elements who are hiding out in the peninsula near Balad. So they have mounted the operation in the peninsula area.
"Up along the Tigris river there have been a growing number of former regime loyalists, Ba'ath Party officials, Fedayeen and Iraqi Intelligence Service type people who exist up there and continue to hire individuals to come in an attack Americans," said Brig. Gen. Daniel Hahn, the chief of staff for the V Corps, which oversees Army forces in Iraq. "So we have done collection and found this peninsula."
Gauging the intensity of the attacks has been difficult. American military officials said they disclose the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq, but only publicly confirm attacks when they receive specific requests from the news media. Conversations with soldiers in this isolated area where a bend in the Tigris River creates a small natural peninsula suggested that the level of attacks has been intense. Soldiers said that night convoys were routinely fired on in the area, with bullets striking vehicles and rocket propelled grenades whizzing over gunner's heads and between jeeps. "We are just lucky they are bad shots," said one American soldier whose convoy has been fired on. Until the recent operation only several hundred Americans patrolled the area and a common response to attacks by lightly armed convoys was to flee when fired upon. Soldiers said they are now firing back at attackers and Col. Rudesheim said there have been no attacks since the operation was launched. Iraqis bitterly complained today that the operation was excessive, with one many declaring it larger than the Normandy invasion. Soldiers complained that American soldiers broke windows during searches, occupied houses and roughed-up detainees.
American officials denied the charges. Criticism focused on the deaths of two men in their 50's who apparently died of heart attacks. One family bitterly complained that American soldiers prevented them from giving medication to Jassem Rumyad, a 52-year-old who died of an apparent heart attack during a raid. Hella Khalif, Mr. Rumyad's eight-year-old mother, said that women and children were handcuffed during the raid and American soldiers gagged she and Mr. Rumyad's wife and daughter when they demanded he be given medication. "They put tape over my mouth," she said. American officials said the women's account was false and that Mr. Rumyad was given his medication. But one American officer involved said that women and children were handcuffed by American soldiers in one location. The officer said that they ordered the handcuffs removed. Iraqis said the scale and aggressiveness of the sweep had alienated the local population. Col. Rudesheim said the raid was an effort to target the small group of people attacking American forces. He said the lack of ambushes over the last two days was encouraging, but it was too early to tell whether the operation would curb the growing number of attacks. "That's the lingering question," he said. "Are they just lying low?"
Garbage! Sweep up the bad guys, kill them, start lots of community "banks" funded by Iraqi petro-dollars, and give the "little guys" a chance to build their country by building their own businesses.
FReegards, SFS.
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