'Sending a Message' With a Show of Force
Rural Iraqi Homes Destroyed in U.S. Offensive
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 19, 2003; Page A21
TIKRIT, Iraq, Nov. 18 -- The house of Omar Khalil Ibrahim is a flattened jumble of broken bricks and roofing. Three of his neighbors' homes, still standing, are riddled with big holes made by tank shells that blasted through two or three walls. A dead cow lies rotting beside a broken shed.
The scene in central Iraq was the result of a U.S. military offensive aimed at taking the initiative away from anti-occupation guerrillas. It is using helicopter gunships, tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, as well as an occasional jet strike, unleashing 500-pound bombs and satellite-guided rockets.
One high-ranking commander described it as a "no-holds barred" operation. The targets are suspected hideaways, command centers and safe houses of the elusive guerrillas, U.S. officials said.
"We have to use these capabilities to take that fight to the enemy, and why not?" said Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, which patrols western Iraq. "That's why we use them. They are the right systems."
For all the heavy and sophisticated armaments, the targets in Hawijat al-Ali, a rural hamlet near Tikrit, are small-scale. The houses are single-story structures set within walled rose gardens.
"We were surprised by all the big shooting," said Kafi Khalaf, Ibrahim's wife. "They spent a lot to get rid of our houses."
U.S. military officials say the show of force is a necessary response to escalating attacks in central Iraq. Maj. Gordon Tate, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit, said the offensive, which began Oct. 1, picked up steam after Nov. 2, when guerrillas shot down a U.S. CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter near the western town of Fallujah, killing 16 soldiers. Rocket and artillery operations replaced search-and-seizure raids that characterized U.S. military activity in the summer and early fall.
"We are sending a message. We are showing we are here," Tate said. Among the weapons now in use are rockets that each disperse 960 little anti-personnel bombs. Five Iraqis were killed Monday night in a 4th Infantry Division attack, Tate said.
Tate said that sympathizers of deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein pay mercenaries to harass U.S. troops. "We want them to think twice," he said. "They should leave out of fear or face death."
To curb the use of roadside bombs that are among the deadliest weapons employed by Iraqi resistance fighters, soldiers have orders to shoot and kill anyone seen digging a hole alongside thoroughfares, Tate said. The same goes for anyone seen carrying a weapon, he said.
Emphasizing the new get-tough approach, U.S. troops in dozens of armored vehicles patrolled in convoys throughout Tikrit Monday. "They are saying, 'I dare you,' " said Ashraf Skarki, a farmer. "The noise and dust, it is all part of their letter to Tikrit."
The activity is not limited to this town, which is notoriously hostile to the U.S. occupation. In Baqubah, several miles east of Tikrit, a pair of F-15 fighter jets, launched from Qatar on the Persian Gulf, dropped four 500-pound bombs Tuesday on some abandoned farmhouses, military officials said. Apache helicopter gunships and artillery poured fire on targets on Baqubah's outskirts and then ground troops pounded the area with 155mm howitzers and 120mm mortars.
"We have taken action on these targets before, but this is to demonstrate one more time that we have significant firepower and we can use it at our discretion," said Lt. Col. Mark Young, commander of the 67th Armor Regiment's 3rd Battalion, part of the 4th Infantry Division. "This is the biggest operation we've had in the Baqubah area in terms of tonnage and volume" of munitions, he said.
On Monday, two U.S. soldiers were killed near Balad, about 35 miles from Baqubah, one in a rocket-propelled grenade attack, the other by a roadside bomb.
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