Gathering of Eagles

Media

Troop Buildup Yields Positive Results

Posted On: June 19, 2007 at 1:41 PM By: deputydan

At a Baghdad news conference, Defense Secretary Gates stated that the military buildup was beginning to show dividends. Gen. David H. Petraeus said the operation was intended to take the fight to Al Qaeda’s hideouts in order to cut down the group’s devastating campaign of car bombings.

The comments by General Petraeus are signal that the United States military has yet again entered a new phase in Iraq, four months after the start of the so-called troop surge and a security plan focused on dampening sectarian violence within Baghdad

(By THOM SHANKER and MICHAEL R. GORDON and additional contribution by ALISSA J. RUBIN)

With the influx of tens of thousands of additional combat troops into Iraq now complete, American forces have begun a wide offensive against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia on the outskirts of Baghdad, the top American commander in Iraq said Saturday.

Despite Calls for Restraint, Sunni Mosque Is Bombed in Southern Iraq City (June 17, 2007) The commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, in a news conference in Baghdad along with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, said the operation was intended to take the fight to Al Qaeda’s hideouts in order to cut down the group’s devastating campaign of car bombings.

The comments by General Petraeus were a signal that the United States military had yet again entered a new phase in Iraq, four months after the start of the so-called troop surge and a security plan focused on dampening sectarian violence within Baghdad. They reflected an acknowledgment that more has to be done beyond the city’s bounds to halt a relentless wave of insurgent attacks that have undercut attempts at political reconciliation.

The offensive also comes at a time in the war when there are increasing American casualties and rising domestic pressure to show results or begin troop withdrawals, and just three months before a formal assessment of the military buildup President Bush ordered.

The new emphasis on attacking the insurgent cells and bomb-making factories outside the capital is expected to be a sustained one, involving tough fighting. But creating lasting effects from such pushes has been challenging; in the past, insurgents have repeatedly been driven from one location only to resurface in another.

The heart of the American buildup of 30,000 extra troops is the deployment of five American brigade combat teams, a fighting core of more than 20,000 soldiers. Along with an additional Marine Expeditionary Unit, the last of those forces arrived in the past few days, bringing the total number of American troops in Iraq to about 155,000.

The additional American forces, General Petraeus said Saturday, would allow the United States to conduct operations in "a number of areas around Baghdad, in particular to go into areas that were sanctuaries in the past of Al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a largely Sunni Iraqi group thought to have foreign leadership, has intensified its bombing campaign recently. Its attacks are thought to include the bombing this week of the Shiite shrine in Samaria, which was heavily damaged in a previous bombing last year.

Shiites have been the most heavily hit by the insurgent attacks, and officials in the Shiite-led government have bluntly said that no political deal with Sunni Arabs would be possible until the violence eases.

The scope, timing and details of the new American operations are classified. But one sign of the stepped-up activity was apparent in a recent operation reported by the Third Infantry Division, which is operating in the Sunni Arab belts south of the capital. In that case, American attack helicopters and Iraqi forces struck an insurgent cell, killing several and capturing others.

The decision to mount more attacks in the Sunni belts is a trade-off in a military sense because it will limit the number of American forces available to secure neighborhoods in the capital. General Petraeus appeared to allude to that on Saturday.

"There has never been a military commander in history that wouldn’t like to have more of something or other, he said. "That characterizes all of us here.

"The fact is, frankly, that we have all that our country is going to provide us in terms of combat forces — that is really it, right now.

This is not the first time that American forces have taken on Qaeda strongholds. Over the past year, for instance, the military has had success in driving insurgents out of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, west of Baghdad.

The military has also begun working with Sunni tribes in Anbar who oppose Al Qaeda, and is hoping to expand this approach to other areas.

But even that partial success has highlighted the flexibility of the insurgents. As gains have been made in Anbar, commanders say, the group has shifted their fighters to Diyala Province and elsewhere, flowing away from pressure and creating new pockets of violence.

In the Baghdad news conference, Defense Secretary Gates insisted that the military buildup was beginning to show dividends.

"The full impact of the surge is just beginning to be felt, said Mr. Gates, who was making his fourth visit to Iraq in his six months as defense secretary.

Mr. Gates arrived in Iraq to express Washington’s disappointment with the pace of political reconciliation under Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and to urge accelerated efforts to reach a series of political benchmarks to lower tensions among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Mr. Gates also met with the American ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, who said that no outside power could compel the Iraqis to reach accommodation.

"These have to be Iraqi decisions and Iraqi compromises if they are really going to take effect, Ambassador Crocker said. "We can’t come up with solutions as the United States and expect to impose them or impose timelines and say, You’ve got to do this for the future of your country.’

Earlier Saturday, Mr. Gates visited a joint security station in the Karada region of southeastern Baghdad, where American forces conduct missions along with Iraqi military and police units from inside a secured, walled compound.The American commander at the compound, Maj. Christopher Wendland, of the Second Battalion, 17th Field Artillery, said attacks in his area had dropped to 5 or 6 per week from 15 to 16 per week about a month ago. But at the same time, the number of improvised bombs planted in the area had gone up.

Earlier, in the news conference, General Petraeus acknowledged that the results of the Baghdad security push had been mixed so far.

"We are ahead in some areas and behind in others, he said.

He said troops would continue operating in neighborhoods of Baghdad to calm Sunni-Shiite tensions and "ensure that fault lines do not once again produce a spiral of violence. In addition, the general said, Iraqi and American forces will be operating more intensively in larger population centers outside of Baghdad, like Diyala Province and other areas where Al Qaeda has moved in.

Posted on June 19, 2007 at 1:41 PM by deputydan

To: deputydan

Now there's a view you ain't hearing from the press! Gee I'm stunned, how about you?

1 Posted On: June 19, 2007 at 11:53 PM By: Soapbox