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U.S. Troops Launch Massive Hunt for Militia Leaders in Fallujah
FALLUJAH, Iraq — After the deadline passed for Iraqis to turn in all heavy weapons, hundreds of U.S. troops backed by helicopters and tanks raided homes in Fallujah (search ) Sunday as they gathered suspects and weapons. Food, fuel, medical supplies and teddy bears were subsequently sent in to ease the tension.
The measures taken were part of a newly implemented campaign to root out anti-American rebels.
US-led coalition to ban heavy weapons in Iraq, require permits
BAGHDAD (AFP) May 23, 2003
The US-led coalition in Iraq expects to ban all heavy and automatic weapons and require permits for small arms within 30 days, Lieutenant General David McKiernan told reporters on Friday.
NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) — The military wing of the main Shiite movement in Iraq has disarmed, as efforts focus on political struggle to end the US occupation, the leader of the supreme assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) told AFP in an interview.
With two weeks left before US forces impose a ban on weapons, Mohammad Baqer Hakim said the Badr brigade, which boasted as many as 15,000 militiamen, had given up its heavy weaponry.
Armed Iraqis, US struggles to protect
Yesterday, US soldiers began enforcing a new ban on automatic weapons. In the afternoon, attackers hurled a grenade and sprayed gunfire at a US convoy as it patrolled north Baghdad. At least two American soldiers were wounded, and one Iraqi civilian was killed, soldiers on the scene said.
Despite the 7,000 Baghdad police officers back at work, American soldiers like Dommell are still the only real crime-fighters in the chaotic capital city, and expect to be for months to come. It is proving an increasingly dangerous assignment, especially since relatively few Iraqis appear inclined to hand over weapons peacefully. Yesterday, police stations across the city reported only a few dozen men voluntarily giving up their arms.
U.S. Troops Launch Massive Hunt for Militia Leaders in Fallujah
Sunday, June 15, 2003
FALLUJAH, Iraq — After the deadline passed for Iraqis to turn in all heavy weapons, hundreds of U.S. troops backed by helicopters and tanks raided homes in Fallujah (search ) Sunday as they gathered suspects and weapons. Food, fuel, medical supplies and teddy bears were subsequently sent in to ease the tension.
The measures taken were part of a newly implemented campaign to root out anti-American rebels.
The U.S. troops handcuffed and forced men to lie face down on floors and rousted women from their beds while searching for illegal arms, in a swift and coordinated action that residents of the raided homes complained was heavy handed.
After the three-hour operation in Fallujah, eight suspected leaders of the anti-American resistance were taken into custody.
The nationwide campaign, dubbed Operation Desert Scorpion (search), "is a combat operation to defeat the remaining pockets of resistance," said Capt. John Morgan, a spokesman for the Army's V Corps (search).
By the midnight Saturday close of a two-week nationwide amnesty for surrendering banned arms, only a fraction of the thousands of heavy weapons, anti-tank rockets and anti-aircraft missiles had been turned in.
Three hours after the deadline, 1,300 troops of the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade conducted the first raids, cordoning off Fallujah, a town of 200,000 about 35 miles west of Baghdad.
Acting on intelligence tips, they swept through 16 buildings at four locations, said Col. David Perkins, the brigade commanding officer. Troops found bombs, bomb-making materials and illegal communications equipment.
No American or Iraqi casualties were reported.
Perkins said the operation was designed to limit inconvenience to residents. After daybreak, convoys of trucks bearing food, medicines, school supplies and toys rolled into town, items requested by local leaders in meetings with brigade commanders.
Nevertheless, Iraqis complained of insensitive behavior by U.S. troops during the raids, asserting that some arrested people had no involvement in attacks on American troops.
"We got rid of one problem and now we have a bigger one," said Jassim Mohammed, turning his face away to wipe away tears. U.S. troops raiding his home arrested two of his sons, Salah, 25, and Mohammed, 26. "Even Saddam never did this to us."
Insurgents have fired on U.S. soldiers in the Fallujah area almost daily since they entered Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland on April 24. U.S. troops there have killed at least 24 Iraqis and wounded 78, while the insurgents have killed four U.S. soldiers and wounded 21.
Residents and local leaders claim the attackers are troublemakers who don't come from the area. Pentagon officials have said foreign volunteers also are still active in Iraq, including Syrians, Saudis and Yemenis.
Last week, a coordinated air and ground strike killed about 70 insurgents, most of them foreigners, at a tent camp near the Syrian border. On Thursday, 74 suspected al-Qaida sympathizers were arrested near the northern city of Kirkuk, the military said. Morgan, the V Corps spokesman, said the men were "being detained and questioned" but would not give further details.
The raids Sunday morning had been widely anticipated. On Saturday, warnings of the impending attack were broadcast from Fallujah's mosques. When the raids began, some residents flashed porch lights or sounded sirens to warn that U.S. troops were approaching.
Staging small, random attacks and provoking a brutal response by the authorities has been a typical way of starting an insurgency. U.S. commanders have struggled to develop a strategy that allows them to deal with anti-American forces while building goodwill with civilians at the same time.
The mood was festive at one clinic, as pharmacists stocked shelves and doctors distributed free medications. "We are all very happy about the delivery, it will help us a great deal," Dr. Jassim Ibrahim Naja said.
Other residents had a lukewarm response.
"No one asked them for food," said Mohammed Mattar Saleh, a teacher and father of 10 who said he hasn't been paid his salary in months. "What we need is our back pay."
Capt. Anthony Butler, of the 3rd Infantry Division, voiced frustration at the failure to win over the population. "We spend 29 days fighting a war, killing anyone who had a weapon or resisted. Then we spent two months in Baghdad trying to transition from killing anything we saw to being nice."
While pursuing illegal weapons stockpiles, the United States increased its radio appeals for Iraqis involved in weapons of mass destruction programs to surrender for trial, offering leniency for those who cooperate.
"It's time to leave your hideouts," said an announcer on an AM radio station in Baghdad operated by U.S. Army's Psychological Operations personnel. "If you come voluntarily and give information about weapons of mass destruction and their launch vehicles, the United States will do its best to give you a just trial in accordance with the law."
Nearly three months of searching have turned up no Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, whose alleged existence was the main justification for going to war.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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News, June 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info
Jordan Times, 6/1/03
NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) — The military wing of the main Shiite movement in Iraq has disarmed, as efforts focus on political struggle to end the US occupation, the leader of the supreme assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) told AFP in an interview.
With two weeks left before US forces impose a ban on weapons, Mohammad Baqer Hakim said the Badr brigade, which boasted as many as 15,000 militiamen, had given up its heavy weaponry.
“The Badr forces are no longer armed; they were armed because they were fighting the regime” of Saddam Hussein, he said.
“But now the regime has fallen, the Badr forces are not armed ... it has no tanks, no artillery guns or other heavy weapons,” Hakim said at SAIRI headquarters in his hometown of Najaf, 150 kilometres south of Baghdad.
However, Hakim hinted the force, elements of which have filtered back to Iraq from neighbouring Iran from where they had carried out raids on the ousted Baath regime, still carried light arms.
“The Iraqi people must have the ability to defend themselves against unidentified forces who continue to kill them,” he said in the interview Friday.
The US-British coalition has announced that all Iraqis would need a licence to carry a gun from June 15 from when heavy weapons are outlawed for political groups, apart from Kurds.
Seen as a conservative who owes his movement's survival to Iran, Hakim objects to the presence of US and British forces in Iraq, but has taken the pragmatic decision to participate in the US-sponsored reconstruction process.
“We have to make every political effort possible to hasten the end of the occupation,” Hakim said, implicitly rejecting a wave of guerrilla attacks on coalition forces that have left about a dozen US soldiers dead.
These efforts include “dialogue with the United States, moulding Iraqi public opinion to apply pressure and also by setting up an Iraqi administration to fill the political vacuum,” left by the ouster of Saddam in April.
“We believe there is a very great opportunity for political action,” he said when asked about the anti-US attacks.
The 66-year-old Ayatollah, who returned from 23 years of exile in Iran on May 10, said the Iraqi people — some 60 per cent of whom are Shiite — must chose their own government.
“This government must represent an individual or a party but be the government of the people built on institutions which express the popular will from free and honest elections.”
Hakim said he supported the US campaign, as long it respected the law, to “deBaathify” the administration, or ensure former ranking members of the Baath party are not allowed to return.
“There are probably members of the fallen regime who committed savage crimes ... and we have to get rid of these people by punishing them in accordance with the law..
Hakim, who says he is seeking to build an Islamic Iraq, warned against seeking revenge.
SAIRI is a member of a council of former opposition groups that is preparing for a national congress in July.
US-led
coalition to ban heavy weapons in Iraq, require permits
 |
BAGHDAD (AFP) May 23, 2003
The US-led coalition in Iraq expects to ban all heavy and
automatic weapons and require permits for small arms within 30 days, Lieutenant
General David McKiernan told reporters on Friday.
The new ban, which has yet to be approved by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, would not come into effect until after an amnesty period to hand in weapons, expected to last two weeks, he said.
"The policy will be that you must come to one of the designated areas, which will probably be police stations, and apply for a weapons permit," he said.
"The issuance of the weapons permits would be done jointly by Iraqi police and coalition forces," McKiernan said.
The US commander of ground forces here added that celebratory fire would also be outlawed, but Kurdish peshmerga (fighters) in the formerly rebel-held areas of northern Iraq would be allowed to retain heavier weapons.
All rights reserved. © 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
BAGHDAD -- ''We got a firefight! Firefight! C'mon, we need help!''
US Army Staff Sergeant Brian Dommell's patrol had only just left US headquarters when an American soldier shouted 200 feet away. Rarely had Iraqi gunfire come this close to base. Dommell and his six men raced into a nearby neighborhood, flak jackets tight around their chests, not sure what they would find.
At the dead end of the residential street, Abdul Kareem Jabar lay face down in the dirt, his hands wired behind his back, an armed Army private hovering by his side. A gunfight between Jabar and a Kurdish militant had caught another US patrol in the crossfire; there were no American injuries.
Such firefights are only growing worse in Iraq, where millions of guns are still on the streets and US commanders say the war has not ended.
Yesterday, US soldiers began enforcing a new ban on automatic weapons. In the afternoon, attackers hurled a grenade and sprayed gunfire at a US convoy as it patrolled north Baghdad. At least two American soldiers were wounded, and one Iraqi civilian was killed, soldiers on the scene said.
Despite the 7,000 Baghdad police officers back at work, American soldiers like Dommell are still the only real crime-fighters in the chaotic capital city, and expect to be for months to come. It is proving an increasingly dangerous assignment, especially since relatively few Iraqis appear inclined to hand over weapons peacefully. Yesterday, police stations across the city reported only a few dozen men voluntarily giving up their arms.
''We're out here every day, and it's dangerous,'' said Dommell, a soft-spoken Buffalo native, as his patrol moved through central Baghdad on Saturday evening. ''But we're the only protection these people have.''
At the 20 or so police stations that have reopened in the city, Iraqis are spending more time trying on their new, American-issued uniforms than nabbing looters and arsonists. In the New Baghdad neighborhood, Iraqi sergeants still struggle over a city map to find a part of town only a few miles away. Most jail cells sit empty, the bomb-damaged walls too easy an escape route.
''We write down reports of rapes, carjackings, but we can't solve many of them yet,'' said one New Baghdad sergeant, Dhaffar Muhammad. ''We did solve a murder last week. There were a lot of eyewitnesses.''
Lieutenant Colonel Ryad Abdul Kareem, the station's commander, says Baghdad is relying on US soldiers for security because many veteran Iraqi officers are staying home over a lack of salaries.
''If the Iraqi police really wanted to protect and defend this country, it would not be hard,'' Kareem said. ''But many officers are waiting for a new government, to see what happens in Iraq.''
From prisoners of war to people held on misdemeanor-level charges like theft, most Iraqis apprehended in the capital are held in a US detention center at Baghdad International Airport that operates under fortress-style security. There have been a few riots recently, say officials at the airport, who plan to separate the Iraqis by category. But the option of holding petty criminals in Baghdad remains elusive because of the lack of jails and officers.
''A couple'' of prisoners ''snuck out of windows here, so we closed it down,'' said Army Captain Steve Caruso, who works at Baghdad's Police Academy, where some makeshift jails are used. ''They grow 'em smart here.''
Sergeant Dommell's two-hour patrol, accompanied by a Globe reporter and photographer, experienced the threats and uncertainty faced by US soldiers who are deployed on virtually every other street. The First Armored Division 2-6 infantry unit is at the front lines of a new kind of urban warfare, in which every person on a rooftop is a threat -- and they are ubiquitous -- and even excited children who mob the US troops with thumbs-up signs are viewed as possible decoys or distractions sent by gunmen.
The new weapons ban is especially tricky to enforce for US patrols, who are torn between enforcing the rules and allaying Iraqi anger over being disarmed.
Minutes after Jabar was led away by some of Dommell's fellow soldiers, the sergeant was faced with three conflicting versions of the Kurd-Iraqi firefight -- the Kurd fired, Jabar fired, or they struggled. After calling in to a superior, Dommell ordered a search of the Kurd's two-story house for his gun clip and other weapons. Inside, a child cried upstairs as soldiers combed mattresses and wardrobes with a ''We're here to help'' gentility, finding nothing. Dommell thanked the Kurd's sister-in-law there, Afra Rahra Ali. Ali would not name her brother-in-law, but urged the Americans to come back often.
''We want you to take whoever harms us,'' she said.
Outside, one soldier said the magazine's disappearance is no surprise to US patrols. ''The shooting'll be under investigation,'' he said. ''They're always under investigation.''
The seven men set out on foot for the Iraqi Ministry of Information, Saddam Hussein's former propaganda center, where the glass chandeliers have become a magnet for looters. Along the quarter-mile route, scores of children materialized from an apartment building, shouting ''Hello, mister!'' and ''Go USA!'' A few soldiers slapped them five, but Dommell eyed the youngsters warily and watched the apartments' windows.
At the ministry, the patrol found a gate forced open that only a few hours earlier had been wired shut and barricaded. ''The looters are back!'' said Sergeant Emmanuel Flores.
In the shadows of the burned-out building, soldiers stumbled across a 23-year-old Iraqi, Yasser Hatim, who said his mother, two brothers, and sister had been squatting upstairs. A patdown quickly turned up a sharpened 6-inch knife on Hatim's belt.
''We're taking this,'' Dommell said.
''But it's all we have to protect ourselves,'' Hatim said, ''against the men who come at night.''
Dommell shook his head. ''You'll have to find a new weapon.''
The previous night, Dommell's men had come under close fire from a person believed to be on a rooftop, but Saturday evening's patrol ended without further violence. Dommell said the guns on the street, combined with the anger over the new weapons policy, make every day a wait-and-see adventure. ''There's no logical way to disarm them,'' he said of this nation of 25 million, ''but we have to find these guns.''
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
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