thedrifter
03-03-07, 07:20 AM
Official: Most IEDs are from Saddam’s regime
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Mar 2, 2007 23:09:01 EST
Coalition forces in Iraq continue to encounter explosive devices made in Iran, although the bulk of such ordnance is left over from the former Iraqi regime, a senior military official told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday.
“There are clearly still remnants of war from Saddam’s days all over this country,” said Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief of staff for Multi-National Force-Iraq, who spoke from Camp Liberty in Baghdad via a satellite video hookup. “The difference is, now, we’re finding the same types of munitions and weaponry that is clearly marked from Iran.”
Anderson said those items take the form of components of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that are brought into and assembled in Iraq. But “the bulk” of what troops are finding is old ordnance, some of it dating back to the 1991 Gulf War, he said.
Senior U.S. officials have recently said an Iranian paramilitary group is supplying bomb-making material to Iraqi Shiite militants for use on U.S. troops. Anderson said MNFI currently has detained “a minimal” number of Iranians and is questioning them at various sites in Iraq.
“And we’ll keep trying to determine, through questioning, what their motives are, who they’re working for, how they’re resourced and what their ultimate goal is here in Iraq,” Anderson said. He didn’t provide any new insights into whether the answers had provided any new such information.
No Iranians have been detained during the past week, Anderson said.
MNFI also is trying to establish an initial foothold in Baghdad’s contentious Sadr City, part of the renewed push to disperse troops into joint security stations and combat outposts to reduce the violence and stabilize the city. Anderson said the Iraqi National Police already occupy Sadr City and that the commander of the 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, has an ongoing dialogue with Sadr City’s mayor on establishing a joint security station.
“That work is in progress right now,” Anderson said, adding that the mayor has been “very cooperative.” Anderson thinks the force will “begin building the structure around that” sometime this week and that the station would be fully operational and serving as a base for foot patrols, “all within a month.”
“If you’d asked us that a month or two ago, we probably wouldn’t have thought that,” Anderson said.
Daily attacks on coalition forces, mostly carried out by Shiite paramilitary units, are still “prevalent, still significant,” but “on the decrease,” Anderson said. Typically, 80 to 90 attacks are carried out daily on forces in Baghdad and around 75 in northern Iraq; Anderson said daily attacks lately have been numbering 10 to 20 fewer in both areas.
Anderson said the Baghdad operation is off to a promising start.
“Though early in the process, there are some indications that we are affecting the planning and operations of the enemy,” Anderson said. Since the beginning of the Baghdad crackdown, coalition forces have discovered “numerous large” caches of weapons, improvised explosive device material, munitions and other explosive materials, he said.
In Yusufiyah on Thursday, he said, forces found 14 caches containing “hundreds” of mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades, rocket launchers, detonation cord, artillery rounds, tank rounds, fuses, material for IEDs, sniper rifles, Katushya rockets and numerous other items.
That and other recent cache finds, Anderson said, “are indicators that we have put increased presence in the area of operations, and the local populace is willing to cooperate with us in stopping the violence in Iraq.”
He cautioned that “we’re still early in the operation, and we expect that there will be significant efforts by the enemy to alter his tactics to meet this challenge.”
Ellie
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Mar 2, 2007 23:09:01 EST
Coalition forces in Iraq continue to encounter explosive devices made in Iran, although the bulk of such ordnance is left over from the former Iraqi regime, a senior military official told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday.
“There are clearly still remnants of war from Saddam’s days all over this country,” said Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief of staff for Multi-National Force-Iraq, who spoke from Camp Liberty in Baghdad via a satellite video hookup. “The difference is, now, we’re finding the same types of munitions and weaponry that is clearly marked from Iran.”
Anderson said those items take the form of components of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that are brought into and assembled in Iraq. But “the bulk” of what troops are finding is old ordnance, some of it dating back to the 1991 Gulf War, he said.
Senior U.S. officials have recently said an Iranian paramilitary group is supplying bomb-making material to Iraqi Shiite militants for use on U.S. troops. Anderson said MNFI currently has detained “a minimal” number of Iranians and is questioning them at various sites in Iraq.
“And we’ll keep trying to determine, through questioning, what their motives are, who they’re working for, how they’re resourced and what their ultimate goal is here in Iraq,” Anderson said. He didn’t provide any new insights into whether the answers had provided any new such information.
No Iranians have been detained during the past week, Anderson said.
MNFI also is trying to establish an initial foothold in Baghdad’s contentious Sadr City, part of the renewed push to disperse troops into joint security stations and combat outposts to reduce the violence and stabilize the city. Anderson said the Iraqi National Police already occupy Sadr City and that the commander of the 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, has an ongoing dialogue with Sadr City’s mayor on establishing a joint security station.
“That work is in progress right now,” Anderson said, adding that the mayor has been “very cooperative.” Anderson thinks the force will “begin building the structure around that” sometime this week and that the station would be fully operational and serving as a base for foot patrols, “all within a month.”
“If you’d asked us that a month or two ago, we probably wouldn’t have thought that,” Anderson said.
Daily attacks on coalition forces, mostly carried out by Shiite paramilitary units, are still “prevalent, still significant,” but “on the decrease,” Anderson said. Typically, 80 to 90 attacks are carried out daily on forces in Baghdad and around 75 in northern Iraq; Anderson said daily attacks lately have been numbering 10 to 20 fewer in both areas.
Anderson said the Baghdad operation is off to a promising start.
“Though early in the process, there are some indications that we are affecting the planning and operations of the enemy,” Anderson said. Since the beginning of the Baghdad crackdown, coalition forces have discovered “numerous large” caches of weapons, improvised explosive device material, munitions and other explosive materials, he said.
In Yusufiyah on Thursday, he said, forces found 14 caches containing “hundreds” of mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades, rocket launchers, detonation cord, artillery rounds, tank rounds, fuses, material for IEDs, sniper rifles, Katushya rockets and numerous other items.
That and other recent cache finds, Anderson said, “are indicators that we have put increased presence in the area of operations, and the local populace is willing to cooperate with us in stopping the violence in Iraq.”
He cautioned that “we’re still early in the operation, and we expect that there will be significant efforts by the enemy to alter his tactics to meet this challenge.”
Ellie