lennart
14-06-03, 14:36
Attack toll repels small town in Iraq
BLOODY PURSUIT OF U.S. ENEMIES THREATENS TO ALIENATE IRAQIS
By Tom Lasseter and Drew Brown
Knight Ridder
RAWAH, Iraq - Hassan Ibrahim walked the narrow space between the fresh graves and shook his head. There were 78, some of them packed with more than one body, with rocks as markers. The air stank of death. The names of the dead were written on paper and folded into soda bottles stuck in the ground.
``This town was safe before the Americans came here and made a lot of blood,'' said Ibrahim. ``Is this the democracy they were talking about?''
The graves were all that remained after U.S. forces struck a suspected terrorist training camp 5 1/2 miles from town Thursday, raking the earth with missiles and machine-gun fire.
Although the attack was a military success, it threatens to create thousands of new enemies in this small farming city on the banks of the Euphrates River. In a place where everyone knows each other and the streets are quiet after dark, the number of corpses and the havoc of battle could have unintended consequences.
``If I get a chance, I would shoot an American, because they are now my enemies,'' said Marwan Alrawi, a member of a family that owns farmland throughout the area. ``Before this, one of 10,000 Rawah citizens would fight the Americans. Now, more than half would.''
Unforeseen backlash
The backlash highlights the increasingly difficult task of crushing Baath Party loyalists and what U.S. officials say are a growing number of foreign fighters while also winning the sympathies of ordinary Iraqis.
The raid was part of some of the heaviest fighting in Iraq since President Bush declared the war largely over May 1. Most of it has taken place in the ``Triangle,'' an area that extends from Baghdad, in the east to Tikrit in the north, and then west almost to Syria. The area, made up predominantly of conservative Sunni Muslims, has been a recent flash point of attacks on American troops.
Attacks continued early Friday when a group of Iraqi gunmen ambushed a column of tanks from the Army's 4th Infantry Division with rocket-propelled grenades near Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad. U.S. tanks, armored personnel carriers and attack helicopters returned fire, killing 27 attackers, said officials at the U.S. Central Command.
In Mosul, five U.S. soldiers were wounded Friday night as U.S. troops battled Iraqi fighters for a second day in the streets of the northern provincial capital. Two Iraqi citizens were killed, and three more were wounded in the fighting.
Six U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division have been wounded in grenade attacks over the past two days as demonstrations by ex-Iraqi soldiers demanding to be paid have turned violent.
Thursday, Iraqi police killed two Iraqis and wounded two others after hundreds of demonstrators stormed a government building and shot at police in the city center. U.S. commanders said fighting broke out again Friday after a crowd of about 100 angry Iraqis hurled stones and makeshift explosives while gunmen fired from rooftops.
Mosul has enjoyed relative calm for the past six weeks, and the fighting suggested that while many Iraqis welcomed Saddam's fall, they are increasingly frustrated by the chaos that has succeeded the dictator.
Eradication effort
Central Command officials said the U.S. military offensives in recent days are part of ``a continued effort to eradicate Baath Party loyalists, paramilitary groups and other subversive elements.''
Speaking to Pentagon reporters in a teleconference Friday, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, the top allied commander in Iraq, declined to say much about the Rawah raid. He did not say who the suspected terrorists were.
``I will simply tell you that it was a camp area that was confirmed with bad guys, and specifically who the bad guys are will be determined as we exploit the site,'' he said.
While many in Rawah, about four hours west of Baghdad, said the people killed were fighters from Syria and Iraq, the death toll outraged them.
Villagers said nearly 80 fighters were killed in the raid. Maj. Brad Lowell of the U.S. Central Command said the number of casualties could not be confirmed.
``The command has always stayed away from specific body counts,'' Lowell said. ``The bottom line is if we're in that area, and we've put this type of combat power there, then it's obvious there's some significant concentration of enemy there.''
A Pentagon official said information remained sketchy about the nationalities of those killed in the raid. ``Some Syrians were among them,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``But there were other nationalities as well.''
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/6088018.htm
BLOODY PURSUIT OF U.S. ENEMIES THREATENS TO ALIENATE IRAQIS
By Tom Lasseter and Drew Brown
Knight Ridder
RAWAH, Iraq - Hassan Ibrahim walked the narrow space between the fresh graves and shook his head. There were 78, some of them packed with more than one body, with rocks as markers. The air stank of death. The names of the dead were written on paper and folded into soda bottles stuck in the ground.
``This town was safe before the Americans came here and made a lot of blood,'' said Ibrahim. ``Is this the democracy they were talking about?''
The graves were all that remained after U.S. forces struck a suspected terrorist training camp 5 1/2 miles from town Thursday, raking the earth with missiles and machine-gun fire.
Although the attack was a military success, it threatens to create thousands of new enemies in this small farming city on the banks of the Euphrates River. In a place where everyone knows each other and the streets are quiet after dark, the number of corpses and the havoc of battle could have unintended consequences.
``If I get a chance, I would shoot an American, because they are now my enemies,'' said Marwan Alrawi, a member of a family that owns farmland throughout the area. ``Before this, one of 10,000 Rawah citizens would fight the Americans. Now, more than half would.''
Unforeseen backlash
The backlash highlights the increasingly difficult task of crushing Baath Party loyalists and what U.S. officials say are a growing number of foreign fighters while also winning the sympathies of ordinary Iraqis.
The raid was part of some of the heaviest fighting in Iraq since President Bush declared the war largely over May 1. Most of it has taken place in the ``Triangle,'' an area that extends from Baghdad, in the east to Tikrit in the north, and then west almost to Syria. The area, made up predominantly of conservative Sunni Muslims, has been a recent flash point of attacks on American troops.
Attacks continued early Friday when a group of Iraqi gunmen ambushed a column of tanks from the Army's 4th Infantry Division with rocket-propelled grenades near Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad. U.S. tanks, armored personnel carriers and attack helicopters returned fire, killing 27 attackers, said officials at the U.S. Central Command.
In Mosul, five U.S. soldiers were wounded Friday night as U.S. troops battled Iraqi fighters for a second day in the streets of the northern provincial capital. Two Iraqi citizens were killed, and three more were wounded in the fighting.
Six U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division have been wounded in grenade attacks over the past two days as demonstrations by ex-Iraqi soldiers demanding to be paid have turned violent.
Thursday, Iraqi police killed two Iraqis and wounded two others after hundreds of demonstrators stormed a government building and shot at police in the city center. U.S. commanders said fighting broke out again Friday after a crowd of about 100 angry Iraqis hurled stones and makeshift explosives while gunmen fired from rooftops.
Mosul has enjoyed relative calm for the past six weeks, and the fighting suggested that while many Iraqis welcomed Saddam's fall, they are increasingly frustrated by the chaos that has succeeded the dictator.
Eradication effort
Central Command officials said the U.S. military offensives in recent days are part of ``a continued effort to eradicate Baath Party loyalists, paramilitary groups and other subversive elements.''
Speaking to Pentagon reporters in a teleconference Friday, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, the top allied commander in Iraq, declined to say much about the Rawah raid. He did not say who the suspected terrorists were.
``I will simply tell you that it was a camp area that was confirmed with bad guys, and specifically who the bad guys are will be determined as we exploit the site,'' he said.
While many in Rawah, about four hours west of Baghdad, said the people killed were fighters from Syria and Iraq, the death toll outraged them.
Villagers said nearly 80 fighters were killed in the raid. Maj. Brad Lowell of the U.S. Central Command said the number of casualties could not be confirmed.
``The command has always stayed away from specific body counts,'' Lowell said. ``The bottom line is if we're in that area, and we've put this type of combat power there, then it's obvious there's some significant concentration of enemy there.''
A Pentagon official said information remained sketchy about the nationalities of those killed in the raid. ``Some Syrians were among them,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ``But there were other nationalities as well.''
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/6088018.htm