PDA

View Full Version : Troops patrol tense town



thedrifter
10-06-05, 12:12 PM
Troops patrol tense town
By Antonio Castaneda
Associated Press

HADITHA, Iraq — Marines leading an offensive in western Iraq patrolled the gravel and dirt streets of this riverside city Wednesday, catching the scent of Ramadan holiday meals wafting from homes and eyeing fliers taped to lampposts offering rewards to anyone who kills a U.S. serviceman.

U.S. forces met little resistance when they stormed into Haditha late Monday or in the 48 hours since as they’ve fanned out house-to-house. But they found dozens of roadside bombs and mines buried under major streets — including one that killed three soldiers in nearby Haqlaniyah, also targeted in the offensive to try to retake three Euphrates River towns from al-Qaida insurgents.

American commanders say they aim to push out the militants and base an unspecified number of U.S. and Iraqi troops inside the towns. Clamping off the flow of insurgents from this Sunni Arab-dominated area and nearby Syria is critical to stabilizing Baghdad and other locations further east, they say.

The task is a tall one for thinly stretched U.S. forces and new Iraqi soldiers who have been largely based outside insurgency-plagued areas.

Together, Haditha and surrounding towns form a large population center — with more than 100,000 residents — where militants have been operating almost freely after driving out Iraqi security forces with a series of bloody attacks earlier this year.

The fliers taped up in Haditha’s streets offering 1.5 million Iraqi dinars — about $1,000 — to anyone who kills a U.S. soldier or Marine. Other signs urged residents to cut off the feet and hands of anyone assisting U.S. forces.

Marines said some residents asked if they were going to stay in the city, while other Iraqis said they feared the U.S. presence would increase attacks as the fight now moves downtown.

“If somebody opens his mouth, he loses his head,” said Mustafa, a Haditha resident in his early 20s who would only give his first name for fear of insurgent reprisals.

“It’s affecting their lives without a police force or a hospital — people do not feel safe,” Mustafa said, speaking through a military translator as Marines dug up several roadside bombs near his home.

This fear has also influenced key government decisions — polling stations for the Oct. 15 referendum on a new constitution have not been publicly announced because of security concerns, Marine commanders said.

However, the degree of local support for the insurgency in this Sunni Arab city remains unknown. Mustafa refused to say whether he thought most Haditha residents support insurgents or U.S. forces.

In late August, Marine commanders said they had not been in contact with Haditha’s leaders since the spring, one indicator of the level of bitterness between Sunnis, who fear they are being marginalized in Iraq’s new government, and the U.S. military.

Insurgents have filled the void, showing their strength with a number of heavy attacks.

Twenty Marines and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in Haditha in an ambush and roadside bomb in August. A suicide car bombing in April wrecked Haditha General Hospital, the region’s largest, killing four U.S. troops. Also in April, 19 bullet-riddled bodies were found in the city’s soccer field, and a wave of other attacks wiped out the city’s police force and left their headquarters in ruins.

One former soldier in Saddam Hussein’s army said from his home’s gated courtyard that the U.S. military presence would not guarantee safety. Instead, he said, it would attract insurgent strikes that often kill civilians. The area would be better off if both sides left, he said, adding that he was afraid to walk to the market to buy food with hundreds of Marines patrolling the streets.

Other residents were almost nonchalant about the U.S. presence, apparently accustomed to the periodic U.S. assaults in the area. One man pruned his garden as he curiously watched Marines in front of his home, running from street to street with their guns drawn.

Some Marines warned the uneasy quiet that has held in Haditha would be tested in coming days as insurgents who fled ahead of the U.S. offensive tried to return.

“The interesting thing will be in two weeks. Everyone says they flee and come back, and that’s when we’ll see,” said Capt. James Kimber of Fountain Hills, Ariz., a company commander in the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

The top Marine commander in the area, Col. Stephen W. Davis, also warned Haditha and neighboring towns would need to be a long-term focus for U.S. and Iraqi forces.

“The government of Iraq will always have to do maintenance work out here, as it always has done,” Davis said. “Even Saddam never had control of this area out here.”

For now, Marines are trying to build on goodwill from residents, sending teams to inquire about their needs and to start infrastructure projects that could help rebuild schools and other destroyed infrastructure — if the insurgency is tamed.

“Hopefully we can do the work that we’re here for and get this town going,” said Maj. Dana Hyatt, of Colchester, Conn., a Marine assigned to civilian projects who said the military would soon try to establish a City Council to replace the one that disbanded itself in the face of insurgent threats.

Hyatt said the Marines delivered medical supplies to the damaged hospital, still showing extensive burn marks on its exterior.

However, some residents said they still wouldn’t go there, fearful of insurgents they say bring their wounded for treatment.

Ellie