U.S. Forces Try New Approach: Raid and Dig In
U.S. Forces Try New Approach: Raid and Dig In
By KIRK SEMPLE
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 4 - Marines staked their claim to the abandoned youth center in Husayba last month with a Hellfire missile and two tank rounds that destroyed a corner of the building and part of the roof.
Weeks earlier, residents had forsaken the center to insurgents who were using it as an armory and a staging point for attacks. The fighters fled before the American assault but left evidence that their flight had been in haste, including a half-eaten bowl of fresh figs in a makeshift sniper's roost above the center's theater.
This was the last building in a five-day sweep of the town, a point at which the Americans, in the past, would usually have loaded up their armored vehicles, driven back to their desert bases and prepared for a new raid elsewhere, leaving the door open for a return of the rebels.
But this time the marines immediately began digging in, and Iraqi troops joined them.
Technicians converted the theater's stage into a command center, engineers erected a perimeter of cement barriers to guard against rocket attacks and suicide bombers, and a community relations team took over a warren of rooms near the entrance of the center to receive residents' claims for damages.
Meanwhile, American and Iraqi infantrymen turned some of the remaining space into barracks and began to conduct street patrols in a town that had not had a regular security force, American or Iraqi, in months.
For months, the military has been conducting raids in Anbar Province, the western desert region that has become a wellspring for the insurgency. But the taking of the youth center was one of the first steps in a new approach to taming the area: first sweep a town, then immediately garrison it and begin reconstruction - or what President Bush has called "clear, hold and build." Just as important, Iraqi forces are an integral component of the strategy.
The challenges are daunting: the quality of the Iraqi troops is still low, cooperation from local residents is scarce, and the insurgency, though damaged by the sweeps, remains strong. But by providing a continual security presence and improvements in the quality of life, the American command hopes to win support for the elected leadership and deny the insurgents the popular support they seek.
American military officials in Anbar say this has always been their plan - it has already been applied elsewhere in the country - but they never had enough troops to carry it out. Since spring, the number of Iraqi troops operating in Anbar Province has surged to the current level of about 16,000 from about 2,500 in March, said Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson, commander of Multinational Force West and II Marine Expeditionary Force, which oversees security in Anbar. The Iraqis join about 32,000 coalition troops.
The siege of Husayba, a farming and trading town, was part of a Marine-led operation that began Nov. 5, lasted more than two weeks and cleared villages and towns on both sides of the Euphrates River near the Syrian border. Since spring, troops in Anbar have conducted at least nine major assaults and several smaller ones to disrupt insurgent networks of safe houses and smuggling routes for fighters and suicide bombers going to Iraq's interior from Syria.
According to Capt. Jeffrey S. Pool, spokesman for the Second Marine Division, the plan to ensure a seamless transition from clearing to holding in Anbar was refined in earlier operations, including sweeps in October in Sadaa, Haqlaniya, Haditha and Barwana, where American and Iraqi forces now have garrisons. But the operation last month was the most ambitious application of the strategy.
Even before it ended, construction of at least seven garrisons was under way in Husayba, Karabila and Ubaydi on the south side of the Euphrates and in the Ramana region on the north. Each will be staffed by at least two platoons of American and Iraqi soldiers, officials said.
"We bought land now," said Col. Stephen W. Davis, the commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team Two. "We're not leaving the towns. We're invested in them."
Immediately after the sweeps last month, American and Iraqi officials began meeting with community leaders to conjure up local political representation where, in many places, insurgents had killed the elected leadership or driven it into hiding. They began to resurrect power and electrical systems, or in some cases build them. In time, they say, they will recruit and train local police forces for each community.
General Johnson said that the only existing police force in the province was in Falluja, with 1,200 officers, and that there were "no governments to speak of," except in Ramadi, the provincial capital, and Falluja.
Beyond providing more manpower, the Iraqi security forces give greater legitimacy to the strategy, military officials insist. "The Americans can't occupy this country," said Capt. Conlon Carabine, a company commander in the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, which was involved in the Husayba and Karabila sweeps. "The Iraqi government is going to have to beat this insurgency."
Indeed, the Americans' long-range military strategy in the newly swept towns of western Anbar, as in the rest of the country, is to turn over full security control to the Iraqis. But commanders in Anbar acknowledge that the Iraqi Army still has a long way to go - in training, experience and numbers - before it is prepared to assume control from the Americans.
In an interview at his headquarters at Camp Falluja, General Johnson offered a highly cautious assessment of the Iraqi Army's battle-readiness in Anbar. Pointing to the sixfold increase in the number of Iraqi troops at his disposal this year, he said, "Even though it's a large increase in number, it's going to take time to develop."
Though some units are beginning to be able to "take the lead" on operations, he said, they still require coalition support.
"They're going pretty good out here," he added. "I just believe it's a matter of time."
[...]
But American officials have given up any pretense of trying to create a world-class military and say their goal is to leave behind one that can competently patrol borders and police streets.
Until then, Anbar will primarily be the Americans' fight - and a bloody one at that.
Troops in Anbar have borne the brunt of combat casualties in recent months. Captain Pool, the Second Marine Division spokesman, said at least 205 American servicemen and servicewomen have died there since the division arrived on March 17. That includes the 10 Marines killed last Thursday in a bomb explosion outside of Falluja.
Marine commanders describe the struggle for Anbar in primal terms. "This is not a hearts and minds battle," Colonel Davis said. "This is a fight for survival."
"There are a lot of knuckleheads here that need to die," he went on. "You're just crunching heads."
Moments after his marines finished clearing the last house in their sector of Karabila last month, Captain Carabine stood on a rooftop overlooking the town, taking the full measure of his new mandate. After seven days of arduous house raids, during which one of his marines was killed and several others wounded, he would immediately begin building a garrison in Karabila and somehow, with the support of his Iraqi Army troops, set about trying to shore up the public services in the poor farming village and establish a sense of governmental authority.
"Allowing the people not to be controlled by insurgents and allowing them to live freely and not in the grip of fear is what will win the insurgency," he said. "This is when the real work begins."
U.S. Forces Try New Approach: Raid and Dig In
By KIRK SEMPLE
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 4 - Marines staked their claim to the abandoned youth center in Husayba last month with a Hellfire missile and two tank rounds that destroyed a corner of the building and part of the roof.
Weeks earlier, residents had forsaken the center to insurgents who were using it as an armory and a staging point for attacks. The fighters fled before the American assault but left evidence that their flight had been in haste, including a half-eaten bowl of fresh figs in a makeshift sniper's roost above the center's theater.
This was the last building in a five-day sweep of the town, a point at which the Americans, in the past, would usually have loaded up their armored vehicles, driven back to their desert bases and prepared for a new raid elsewhere, leaving the door open for a return of the rebels.
But this time the marines immediately began digging in, and Iraqi troops joined them.
Technicians converted the theater's stage into a command center, engineers erected a perimeter of cement barriers to guard against rocket attacks and suicide bombers, and a community relations team took over a warren of rooms near the entrance of the center to receive residents' claims for damages.
Meanwhile, American and Iraqi infantrymen turned some of the remaining space into barracks and began to conduct street patrols in a town that had not had a regular security force, American or Iraqi, in months.
For months, the military has been conducting raids in Anbar Province, the western desert region that has become a wellspring for the insurgency. But the taking of the youth center was one of the first steps in a new approach to taming the area: first sweep a town, then immediately garrison it and begin reconstruction - or what President Bush has called "clear, hold and build." Just as important, Iraqi forces are an integral component of the strategy.
The challenges are daunting: the quality of the Iraqi troops is still low, cooperation from local residents is scarce, and the insurgency, though damaged by the sweeps, remains strong. But by providing a continual security presence and improvements in the quality of life, the American command hopes to win support for the elected leadership and deny the insurgents the popular support they seek.
American military officials in Anbar say this has always been their plan - it has already been applied elsewhere in the country - but they never had enough troops to carry it out. Since spring, the number of Iraqi troops operating in Anbar Province has surged to the current level of about 16,000 from about 2,500 in March, said Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson, commander of Multinational Force West and II Marine Expeditionary Force, which oversees security in Anbar. The Iraqis join about 32,000 coalition troops.
The siege of Husayba, a farming and trading town, was part of a Marine-led operation that began Nov. 5, lasted more than two weeks and cleared villages and towns on both sides of the Euphrates River near the Syrian border. Since spring, troops in Anbar have conducted at least nine major assaults and several smaller ones to disrupt insurgent networks of safe houses and smuggling routes for fighters and suicide bombers going to Iraq's interior from Syria.
According to Capt. Jeffrey S. Pool, spokesman for the Second Marine Division, the plan to ensure a seamless transition from clearing to holding in Anbar was refined in earlier operations, including sweeps in October in Sadaa, Haqlaniya, Haditha and Barwana, where American and Iraqi forces now have garrisons. But the operation last month was the most ambitious application of the strategy.
Even before it ended, construction of at least seven garrisons was under way in Husayba, Karabila and Ubaydi on the south side of the Euphrates and in the Ramana region on the north. Each will be staffed by at least two platoons of American and Iraqi soldiers, officials said.
"We bought land now," said Col. Stephen W. Davis, the commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team Two. "We're not leaving the towns. We're invested in them."
Immediately after the sweeps last month, American and Iraqi officials began meeting with community leaders to conjure up local political representation where, in many places, insurgents had killed the elected leadership or driven it into hiding. They began to resurrect power and electrical systems, or in some cases build them. In time, they say, they will recruit and train local police forces for each community.
General Johnson said that the only existing police force in the province was in Falluja, with 1,200 officers, and that there were "no governments to speak of," except in Ramadi, the provincial capital, and Falluja.
Beyond providing more manpower, the Iraqi security forces give greater legitimacy to the strategy, military officials insist. "The Americans can't occupy this country," said Capt. Conlon Carabine, a company commander in the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, which was involved in the Husayba and Karabila sweeps. "The Iraqi government is going to have to beat this insurgency."
Indeed, the Americans' long-range military strategy in the newly swept towns of western Anbar, as in the rest of the country, is to turn over full security control to the Iraqis. But commanders in Anbar acknowledge that the Iraqi Army still has a long way to go - in training, experience and numbers - before it is prepared to assume control from the Americans.
In an interview at his headquarters at Camp Falluja, General Johnson offered a highly cautious assessment of the Iraqi Army's battle-readiness in Anbar. Pointing to the sixfold increase in the number of Iraqi troops at his disposal this year, he said, "Even though it's a large increase in number, it's going to take time to develop."
Though some units are beginning to be able to "take the lead" on operations, he said, they still require coalition support.
"They're going pretty good out here," he added. "I just believe it's a matter of time."
[...]
But American officials have given up any pretense of trying to create a world-class military and say their goal is to leave behind one that can competently patrol borders and police streets.
Until then, Anbar will primarily be the Americans' fight - and a bloody one at that.
Troops in Anbar have borne the brunt of combat casualties in recent months. Captain Pool, the Second Marine Division spokesman, said at least 205 American servicemen and servicewomen have died there since the division arrived on March 17. That includes the 10 Marines killed last Thursday in a bomb explosion outside of Falluja.
Marine commanders describe the struggle for Anbar in primal terms. "This is not a hearts and minds battle," Colonel Davis said. "This is a fight for survival."
"There are a lot of knuckleheads here that need to die," he went on. "You're just crunching heads."
Moments after his marines finished clearing the last house in their sector of Karabila last month, Captain Carabine stood on a rooftop overlooking the town, taking the full measure of his new mandate. After seven days of arduous house raids, during which one of his marines was killed and several others wounded, he would immediately begin building a garrison in Karabila and somehow, with the support of his Iraqi Army troops, set about trying to shore up the public services in the poor farming village and establish a sense of governmental authority.
"Allowing the people not to be controlled by insurgents and allowing them to live freely and not in the grip of fear is what will win the insurgency," he said. "This is when the real work begins."
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