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Monday, June 6, 2005
Iraqi army buoyed by sweep of rebels
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mahmudiyah, Iraq � Late Saturday night, as Operation Lightning drew to a close after five difficult days, Iraqi soldiers came back to their post with some tangible results of their efforts.
In the cargo bed of each of a dozen brand-new Chevy pickup trucks were five or six suspected insurgents.
The ragged-looking, blindfolded men were hunched down with hands tied and heads bowed, their features spotlighted in the warm desert night by the headlights of the trucks behind them. None of the captives spoke during the slow procession, but scores of off-duty Iraqi soldiers lining the drive hurled taunts and insults at them.
Iraq’s newly minted and largely untested soldiers have been the main targets of a murderous insurgency. Using roadside bombs, suicide bombs and deadly ambushes, insurgents killed more than 700 Iraqis last month, many of them police or military, in addition to 80 American troops.
Now, after the five-day sweep of the cities and towns south of Baghdad involving two Iraqi army brigades, Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. air and land forces seized tons of explosives and weapons caches, killed 28 suspected insurgents and detained 263 more.
Americans helped plan Operation Lightning and provided much of the hardware and logistical support, including food and water for the Iraqi soldiers. But the Iraqis were up front manning roadblocks and searching houses.
“It was an Iraqi operation,” said Lt. Col. John King, commander of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 108th Armor Regiment, which is taking over the U.S. forward operating base here. “They’re the ones who know the area best, and they can spot people who should and shouldn’t be here. We can’t do that.”
Interrogations were taking place at an Iraqi military base where U.S. soldiers said they had little access.
Human rights advocates have accused the Iraqi army and its U.S. advisers of using harsh interrogation techniques that may include torture. But U.S. officials say Iraq is a sovereign nation and the U.S. military cannot intervene.
For the top Iraqi army officer in this region, who goes only by the name Gen. A. Muhammad, going on the offensive and finding so many suspects was a sweet victory.
“We still need to be wary,” said Muhammad, two of whose sons have been killed in ongoing clashes with insurgents. “But these last few days have been good days.”
King said the sweep was designed to ease the transition as soldiers from the Georgia-based 48th Brigade Combat Team take over responsibility for this restive area within the so-called Sunni Triangle of Death.
But he said previous raids in Baghdad have been followed by quick and deadly insurgent reprisals. The day after Iraqi army raids ended in Baghdad a week ago, insurgents detonated six car bombs in quick succession.
“This puts us on the offensive,” said King, 41, Doraville’s police chief in civilian life. “But we have to ramp up security quickly to make sure there’s no power vacuum. We’re not going to sit still and allow the [anti-Iraqi forces] to return.”
