thedrifter
04-15-08, 07:14 AM
MILITARY: Pendleton commander affirms Anbar successes
By MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
"Mind-boggling" improvements have taken place in Iraq's Anbar region over the last three years, according to a Camp Pendleton colonel leading a regimental combat team deployed in the western province.
Col. Patrick Malay said Monday that foreign fighters crossing into Iraq from Syria have gone from heavily armed "bus loads," during his last deployment there in 2004, to a trickle today.
"Foreign fighters are still out there and we still run into them," Malay said during a briefing Monday morning broadcast from a U.S. base at Al Asad to the Pentagon. "But they are hard to find because they are running from us. Once we find them, they are very easy to eliminate."
The Bush administration and Marine commanders have pointed to Anbar as one of the major success stories from Iraq.
Anbar was once heavily populated with insurgents and foreign fighters and considered one of the toughest regions to tame. That began to change in late 2006 when Sunni sheiks that control the area began siding with U.S. forces, leading to a sharp drop in violence and a general calm among the local population.
"Our battalions are now able to dedicate more time to humanitarian operations," said Malay, commander of one of two 5,000-member regimental combat teams from Camp Pendleton on assignment in Anbar. "If we were engaged in daily firefights like we were two years ago, none of this would be possible."
Primary security responsibility for the province is on the edge of being handed over to the Iraqi army, police and security forces, he said, meaning some U.S. forces would be able to come home.
"We are well down the road to Iraqi control," he said. "We continue to empower the Iraqis across the board."
On Sunday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during an interview with CBS television that eight provinces are now under Iraqi control with either no U.S. and coalition forces present or those troops serving in an oversight role.
"The next province to go that direction will be al Anbar, of all places, considering where it was 18 months ago," Gates said, referencing previous doubts military commanders had about that region.
The last locally based Marine to die in Anbar was Maj. William "Billy" Hall of Temecula, who died March 30 from injuries suffered in a roadside bombing. His death was the first recorded among local Marines in Iraq since Oct. 8.
Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, 331 Camp Pendleton-based Marines and sailors have been killed in Iraq, nearly all in Anbar. Ten Miramar-based troops have been killed in the war.
Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
Ellie
By MARK WALKER - Staff Writer
"Mind-boggling" improvements have taken place in Iraq's Anbar region over the last three years, according to a Camp Pendleton colonel leading a regimental combat team deployed in the western province.
Col. Patrick Malay said Monday that foreign fighters crossing into Iraq from Syria have gone from heavily armed "bus loads," during his last deployment there in 2004, to a trickle today.
"Foreign fighters are still out there and we still run into them," Malay said during a briefing Monday morning broadcast from a U.S. base at Al Asad to the Pentagon. "But they are hard to find because they are running from us. Once we find them, they are very easy to eliminate."
The Bush administration and Marine commanders have pointed to Anbar as one of the major success stories from Iraq.
Anbar was once heavily populated with insurgents and foreign fighters and considered one of the toughest regions to tame. That began to change in late 2006 when Sunni sheiks that control the area began siding with U.S. forces, leading to a sharp drop in violence and a general calm among the local population.
"Our battalions are now able to dedicate more time to humanitarian operations," said Malay, commander of one of two 5,000-member regimental combat teams from Camp Pendleton on assignment in Anbar. "If we were engaged in daily firefights like we were two years ago, none of this would be possible."
Primary security responsibility for the province is on the edge of being handed over to the Iraqi army, police and security forces, he said, meaning some U.S. forces would be able to come home.
"We are well down the road to Iraqi control," he said. "We continue to empower the Iraqis across the board."
On Sunday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during an interview with CBS television that eight provinces are now under Iraqi control with either no U.S. and coalition forces present or those troops serving in an oversight role.
"The next province to go that direction will be al Anbar, of all places, considering where it was 18 months ago," Gates said, referencing previous doubts military commanders had about that region.
The last locally based Marine to die in Anbar was Maj. William "Billy" Hall of Temecula, who died March 30 from injuries suffered in a roadside bombing. His death was the first recorded among local Marines in Iraq since Oct. 8.
Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, 331 Camp Pendleton-based Marines and sailors have been killed in Iraq, nearly all in Anbar. Ten Miramar-based troops have been killed in the war.
Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.
Ellie