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| Captured: US Army troops escorted suspected Al Qaeda militants on Sunday, after some 33 suspects were arrested in a joint US-Iraqi overnight
raid in the restive city of Baquba. AP |
Too few men hunting Al Qaeda
US-Iraqi forces struggle to clear and hold Iraq's Diyala province.
from the July 9, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
In the past three weeks, at least 60 suspected Al Qaeda fighters have been killed and 153 detained, according to the US military.
"Since the kick-off in Baquba, we started getting phone calls the first day: 'Hey, 15 armed men just came through here,' " says Maj. Tim Hoch, of Greenville, S.C., who heads the small team of US Army advisers working with the Iraqi Army unit based in Udhaim.
But a combination of factors appear to be working in favor of the militants, and even helping them thrive in this province, which served as the last haven of Al Qaeda's former leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, before he was killed in a US airstrike more than a year ago.
The militants hold a superior knowledge of the terrain, an abundant supply of cash and ammunition believed to be coming from Iraq's neighbors including Iran and some Gulf Arab states, and a determination to exploit to their advantage the Sunni-Shiite struggle tearing apart the province known as "mini-Iraq" because of its sectarian and ethnic mix.
Some units of the Diyala-based Iraqi Army's 5th Division are themselves enmeshed in the sectarian conflict. A few officers are even suspected of facilitating arms shipments to Sunni fighters linked to Al Qaeda and Shiite militias, says one US military officer.
The Iraqi police are either absent from most villages or in many instances cooperate with Shiite militias.
"That has been our most difficult task [in dealing with] the Iraqi security forces. As we stand up and grow and sustain them for the long-term, can they, in fact, take over the security of this country? It's going to be a long road ahead and we are clearly not there yet," says General Bednarek, a native of Alexandria, Va.
Bednarek says while the focus now is on restoring law and order in Baquba, a city of about 300,000, the operation will spread to other parts of the province in coming weeks in pursuit of Al Qaeda militants.
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