Adapting to shifting sands of battle in Iraq
US and Iraqi forces adjust to combat changing insurgent tactics.
Iraq's first democratically elected government was
sworn in Tuesday amid a surge of violence that has killed nearly 170 people in six days, reports
The Associated Press.
Despite the spike in insurgent attacks, the US military said Tuesday its forces have recovered a letter they believe was addressed to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi complaining about
low morale among his followers and the incompetence of leaders in his terror network, reports
The Scotsman.
Recovery of the letter, however, is not likely to stop analysts from speculating on what's behind the recent increase in the frequency, intensity, and scale of insurgent attacks.
Knight-Ridder reports that insurgents are now using
bolder tactics and aiming at bigger targets.
Strategists who keep close tabs on the war in Iraq are scratching their heads over a sudden shift to large-scale attacks on American bases by the insurgents who heretofore have primarily bedeviled US forces with their roadside bombs and hit-and-run attacks.
The report points specifically to two recent "well-planned and coordinated mass attacks on US facilities," one at Abu Ghraib prison and that other at a Marine base on the Syrian border. But these bigger attacks might play right into US hands, reports
Knight-Ridder.
Some US commanders privately hoped that this day would come when the poorly trained terrorists would go head-to-head with American regulars. If terrorists come out in the open in large numbers, it makes it easier to find them and kill them. ...
The insurgent and terrorist leaders score points for being able to pull a company-size attack force together quickly in so open and barren a terrain, and to plan and coordinate a complicated, precisely timed assault. But it's good their fighters are all volunteers for martyrdom. When a hundred of them charge a hard-core battalion of 700-plus Marines, that's what awaits.
The reports ends by saying: "the strategists will be watching to see if these attacks continue ... or whether Zarqawi opts to drop back to the daily round of car bombings and roadside bombs."
Speaking of roadside bombs,
The Washington Post reports that the insurgents may have learned some of their most effective tactics from a detailed
1965 US Army manual on "how to build and hide booby traps, complete with detailed diagrams illustrating various means of wiring detonators to explosives, and advising on the best locations for concealing the deadly bombs along roadways and elsewhere."
Two decades later, the Iraqi military issued its troops an Arabic version of the same manual, copying not only the wording but also many of the drawings. ...
The existence of the Iraqi copy highlights the degree to which US military techniques and technology found their way into Hussein's military even as relations between the Iraqi leader and Washington eventually deteriorated into all-out war. With members of Hussein's former military and security groups now powering much of the insurgency in Iraq, US forces find themselves confronting an enemy trained, at least in part, in US military methods.
The
Post points out that roadside bombs "continue to rank as the number one killer of US troops in Iraq, according to Pentagon figures."
The New York Times reports that Iraqi forces are adapting new ways to deal with insurgents. As the
Times reports, former members of Saddam Hussein's security forces, originally dismissed by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority shortly after Hussein's Baathist regime was toppled, are now being relied on more heavily than before. The
Times profiles General Adnan, the Sunni leader of "Iraq's
most fearsome counterinsurgency force," the 5,000-strong Special Police Commandos.
In a country of tough guys, Adnan Thabit may be the toughest of all. He was both a general and a death-row prisoner under Saddam Hussein. He favors leather jackets no matter the weather, his left index finger extends only to the knuckle (the rest was sliced off in combat) and he responds to requests from supplicants with grunts that mean 'yes' or 'no.' Occasionally, a humble aide approaches to spray perfume on his hands, which he wipes over his rugged face. As part of his no-nonsense approach to combating the insurgency, Mr. Thabit played a key role in launching the popular Iraqi reality TV show 'Terrorism in the Grip of Justice,' which has "proved to be one of the most effective psychological operations of the war," according to the
Times.
The insurgents, or suspected insurgents, on 'Terrorism in the Grip of Justice' come off as cowardly lowlifes who kill for money rather than patriotism or Allah. They tremble on camera, stumble over their words and look at the ground as they confess to everything from contract murders to sodomy.
US forces are also refining their approach to fighting the insurgency.
Jane's Defence Weekly (JDW) reports that many US troops are now receiving
more language and cultural training before being deployed to Iraq. The US Army's National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California has simluated the Iraq experience by creating nine villages with about 250 Iraqi-Americans that live there. "Troops have now started to spend as much time practising how to engage and negotiate with 'local' Arab officials as they do on warfighting skills. " reports
JDW.
'The biggest thing, in my mind, is the importance of cultural training,' NTC Commander Brigadier General Robert Cone told JDW. 'This adversary has determined that our great strength is stand-off, so what he's done is draw us into this close fight where we can't tell friend from foe.' ...
Gen. Cone said he is talking with Titan Corporation - which contracts the Iraqi-Americans who work at the NTC - about getting a captured Saddam Hussein regime loyalist or insurgent into the NTC to get more accurate insurgent thinking.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that Pentagon leaders "increasingly see
foreign-language skills not as a peripheral part of the military's mission, but as crucial to the success of American forces abroad."
In the future, officers could be required to have some familiarity with a second language; enlistees might receive language instruction during basic training. No decisions have yet been made. Yet when the Pentagon released its Defense Language Transformation Roadmap last month, it made clear its view that security in a post-Sept. 11 world requires not only a military capable of deploying to the remotest corner of the world at a moment's notice, but also soldiers capable of coping with the cultural and linguistic challenges they meet when they arrive there.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, US forces continue to grapple with the thorny issue of checkpoint tactics. A
UPI report says that the US Army's investigation into the shooting death of an Italian security officer at a US-manned checkpoint last month "shows the military is
relearning lessons from the first months of the occupation."
The incident has caused anger on the streets of Italy and threatened to strain diplomatic relations between the US and Italy. On Saturday, the
US issued a report on its investigation into the matter, which cleared the soldiers of any wrongdoing in the friendly fire incident.
Italy issued its own report Monday night, which
contradicts key findings of the US version of events. The Italian investigation cited "stress and inexperience" of the soldiers involved as factors in his death.
In
csmonitor.com's "Notebook: Iraq" blog, correspondent Annia Ciezadlo describes
how confusing Iraq's checkpoints can be from the perspective of both average Iraqis and US military personnel.
Also...
•
Boot camp, camouflage, guns - and Farsi lessons? (
The Christian Science Monitor)
•
Beijing finds anti-Japan propaganda a 2-edged sword (
The New York Times)
•
Blast strikes Somali premier's rally (
BBC)
•
Could leaks sink Tony Blair? (
Washington Post)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Matthew Clark.
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