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thedrifter
05-10-07, 08:15 AM
Marines try to regain city's trust
By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer
May 10, 2007

HADITHA, IRAQ - The weather was desert hot. But the Pepsi was nicely cold.

After acting as gracious host, the mayor here made his point. "The people of Germany and Japan would not have made progress without the Americans," Mayor Abdul Hakim M. Rasheed told the Marine officers who recently came to his heavily guarded home. "The people of Iraq deserve the same."

The Marines, including three generals, quickly assured Rasheed that they had no plans to abandon him and his city. Don't be distracted by the political debate in Washington, they urged Rasheed, who listened closely and nodded.

Since 2004, the vast, western province of Al Anbar has been the most dangerous part of Iraq for U.S. forces - the center of the Sunni-led insurgency. But Marines here have been experiencing a respite in recent weeks. Attacks against Marines and other troops are at their lowest point in four years.

In the six weeks since his battalion arrived, Lt. Col. James Bierman, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, has seen five of his troops wounded but none killed; the battalion that preceded his suffered 24 deaths and 230 wounded in seven months.

But Marine commanders are convinced the lull will pass quickly. They predict a counteroffensive by insurgents here in the Euphrates River valley, possibly including attacks on civilians and U.S. forces. In recent days, insurgents have staged high-profile attacks in Ramadi, the capital of Al Anbar. Before the violence escalates here, Marine commanders are trying to take advantage of the relative quiet to reassure their allies and step up their operations.

In 2004, Marines twice pulled out of Haditha to fight in Fallouja. Both times, insurgents took bloody revenge on residents who had cooperated with the Americans. Some were rounded up, marched to the town's soccer field and executed.

As Marine commanders try to reassure Rasheed and others that they will not be abandoned again, their strategy can largely be described as more: more engagement with tribal sheiks, more efforts to train Iraqi security forces, more troops, more patrols to find and rout members of Al Qaeda in Iraqi and other insurgent groups, and more positioning of Marines amid the civilian populace. A Navy river patrol squadron has been moved to the Euphrates in case fighting spreads along the waterway.

The Marines say the insurgent movement here is splintering and factions are feuding, but that the movement remains violent. A weapons cache discovered recently included a French-made surface-to-surface missile.

A leading tribal sheik friendly to the U.S. was killed recently by four gunmen who found their way to his home on a tiny island in the Euphrates. The sheik's picture now hangs in Rasheed's office - the mayor refers to him as a "martyr."

The insurgency is "a wounded animal," Bierman said. "Wounded animals are always dangerous."

Many former officers of the Iraqi army and Baath Party members live here, and the towns here along the Euphrates valley provide a route for insurgents traveling from the Syrian border toward Baghdad.

"The enemy wants the Triad back," Bierman added, referring to the area that includes Haditha and the nearby cities of Barwanah and Haqlaniya. "This is area is too important to him - he's going to come back."

For months last year, Marines routinely engaged in nightly gunfights here. Finally, after berms were built to restrict traffic into the city, including the crowded marketplace, the insurgents largely retreated.

But winning back the trust of Haditha residents has been a slow and fitful process. On a recent day, U.S. forces walked the downtown streets, talking to shopkeepers, inquiring whether Marines are treating residents with respect.

"Yes, yes," said Mohammed Alnear, whose shop, Cleopatra Ceramics, sells pottery materials. At a bicycle shop, the proprietor said he remembered "the terrible days" when insurgents with AK-47s roamed the streets and residents "were like scared animals, hiding." With encouragement from tribal sheiks, young men are enlisting in the local police force. Still, the force is still only half of its authorized strength.

Marine commanders say their success in reducing insurgent violence in Haditha and other areas of Al Anbar is an indication that a "surge" of troops, like that being tried by the Army in Baghdad, can succeed. But they note that a surge is a beginning, not an end.

Rasheed indicated that he remained concerned that the Americans, in their haste to hand over control to Iraqis, might leave behind a City Council whose members are, in effect, insurgents in disguise, waiting for the U.S. departure.

"We have to be careful," Rasheed said through an interpreter. This time, it was the Marines' turn to listen and nod.