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thedrifter
01-03-07, 07:21 AM
Posted on Wed, Jan. 03, 2007
WESTERN IRAQ

Elusive insurgents frustrate U.S. troops
Officer: Fight in Anbar province may require `long-term commitment'
DAVID WOOD
Baltimore Sun

RAMADI, Iraq - After three years of fighting that has killed 143 American troops in Anbar province, the U.S. military has been unable to quash a vicious insurgency that shows no sign of abating.

Senior U.S. combat commanders, grappling with Islamist fighters through the Euphrates River towns and the dusty, sprawling province west of Baghdad, describe the insurgents of al-Qaida in Iraq as well-financed, well-led and elusive.

In interviews at heavily bunkered American outposts in Ramadi, Fallujah, Haditha Dam and elsewhere, the officers described the fight as a frustrating, uphill battle that will require a steady commitment over many years to win.

President Bush's struggle to find a strategy to halt Iraq's slide toward chaos and civil war is focused on the growing sectarian strife in Baghdad, where White House and Pentagon strategists say the war must be won. But no matter the fate of Baghdad, the separate insurgency in Anbar will fester and grow as a dangerous al-Qaida sanctuary unless it is decisively defeated, the commanders said.

Gen. James Conway, making his first tour of the region since he was named commandant of the Marine Corps in November, called "disheartening" the steadily rising violence against U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians, despite the presence of 20,000 Marines.

But Conway said he believes the bombings, assassinations and sniper attacks are "at a high-water mark."

U.S. forces are building earthen dikes, or berms, around some urban areas to control access by insurgents. They are out-fighting the insurgents. They are helping train and advise new Iraqi army and police units -- all factors that Conway said convinced him the situation was better than he had expected. The day after Marines finished building the berm around several large towns near Haditha this fall, insurgent attacks dropped in half.

Other officers stressed that while there is progress, it will be slow.

"The issue isn't whether we can hang on," said Brig. Gen. Robert Neller, operations chief for Multinational Force-West, the military command for Anbar province. "The issue is whether the American people are willing to accept a long-term commitment in Iraq."

In direct firefights with insurgents, the Marines and soldiers here always prevailed.

"If killing people would win this, we'd have won a long time ago," said Col. William Crowe, commander of Regimental Combat Team 7, the main combat force in Anbar, where about 1,400 insurgents have been killed since June.

Often paired with Iraqi units, U.S. forces work the streets like detectives, conducting sweeps and dragnets and picking up insurgents and suspected sympathizers. More than a half-dozen of the top insurgent leaders are in jail. There are also some bright spots in recruiting and training Iraqi police.

But legal proof of participation in the insurgency is difficult to assemble, and many insurgents are released by Iraqi judges for lack of evidence. In one recent case, a notorious insurgent leader rejoined the fight against U.S. forces the same day he was released, U.S. officers said.

Asked if he is worried about running out of time in Anbar, Conway replied: "Yeah, I am. There are two timelines: what it will take to get the job done, and what a democratic society will allow us to do the job. Our troops feel that if given a little more time, this thing will sort itself out and we'll walk out with our heads held high."

Ellie