Insurgent and soldier: two views on Iraq fight

His 800-strong battalion has lost 12 soldiers in Iraq, 11 since deploying in September. A further 68 soldiers have been wounded. Of those 11 fatalities, 10 were from roadside bombs.

To appreciate the lethality of these bombs, consider that of the 61 US soldiers to have died in Iraq since the beginning of the year, 33 were killed by roadside bombs and six of those were in and around Khaldiyeh.

"They have gone from wire-command detonators to a variety of remote detonator devices - pagers and toy car remote controllers," Nagl says. "We were getting very good at spotting the wires. But the remote control bombs only have a small antenna attached and it's much harder to see them."

While roadside bombs continue to pose a serious threat, the number of shooting attacks and long-range bombardments has declined. "They are not spectacularly good shots nor spectacularly well-trained," says Nagl, adding that the militants usually fare badly in close encounters with American soldiers.

That appeared to bear true Tuesday when the US military announced that suspected bombmaker Abu Mohammed Hamza was killed by US troops who came under fire while distributing leaflets near Khaldiyeh.

Hamza was a suspected aide to leading militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian believed to have links to Al Qaeda.

Bombardments by mortars and rockets have also lessened, says Nagl. "The indirect fire attacks have dropped off considerably as we have demonstrated that firing mortars and rockets at us is dangerous to your health."

The US military is equipped with radar artillery locators than detect a shell in flight and calculate the source of fire, often before the round has landed. That means US gunners can respond to an artillery barrage by insurgents within seconds, giving the attackers little chance of escape.

The most "disturbing" development from the militants is the growing use of suicide car bombs, Nagl says. A suicide car bomb, driven by a Palestinian from Lebanon, blew up at the Khaldiyeh police station on Dec. 13, killing 23 Iraqi policemen and several civilians. Another car bomb in Khaldiyeh on Jan. 24 killed three American soldiers.

"Suicide bombers have been described as the nuclear weapons of the insurgency and they are worrisome. I think that's true theater-wide," he says.

However, Ahmad says his cell does not target Iraqi security forces and has no sympathy for suicide bomb attackers.

"These are not martyrdom operations. The Iraqi security forces are not guilty and should not be targeted," he says, blaming foreign fighters for the suicide attacks.

Still, Nagl knows that an insurgency cannot be defeated though military means alone. One of the lessons he learned from comparing the British counterinsurgency operation in Malaya in the 1950s with the US experience in Vietnam is that winning hearts and minds is essential.

"We are working very hard to win the hearts and minds of the people here," Nagl says.

The battalion has spent $500,000 in coalition funds on improving schools and health clinics in Khaldiyeh, has helped equip Iraqi security forces, and tries to built bonds of trust with local leaders. Soldiers are taught basic Arabic phrases and told to wave and smile to local people.

Nonetheless, despite progress, he concedes that Khaldiyeh remains a dangerous place and does not expect to fully eradicate the insurgency.

"Malaya is regarded as the most successful counterinsurgency ever, but it still took the British 12 years," Nagl says. "I don't expect to defeat the insurgency. I expect to render it ineffective through increased local support, an increase in our own abilities, and the abilities of the Iraqi security forces."

Winning over the insurgents is unlikely, he says. "We don't want to win their minds. We want to win over the locals so that they can tell us who they are. That's the key, I think. And every sweet and soccer ball we hand out is a bullet in that fight."

Ahmad admits that the US counterinsurgency measures are having an effect on the resistance, but he remains undaunted.

"This is a war," he says. "The better both sides become, the more difficult the war will be for both sides."

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