"A senior Pentagon official conceded that the conflict with Mr. Sadr's militia had been thrust upon the Americans at an inopportune time, just as they were trying to knit together a broad-based government to establish Iraqi sovereignty on June 30. "Attacking the Sadr militia was not an option anybody wanted," one senior Pentagon official said. "Now we have to go out and do it.""
This is your president at his finest..........during the past year, he allowed the militias to exist and arm themselves. An innovative and clever military strategy......NOT!
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U.S. Preparing Long Iraq Drive to Quell Unrest
By THOM SHANKER
Published: April 11, 2004
ASHINGTON, April 10 — American commanders are preparing for a prolonged campaign to quell the twin uprisings in Iraq, issuing orders to attack any members of a rebellious Shiite militia in southern cities relentlessly while moving methodically to squeeze Sunni fighters west of Baghdad until they lay down their arms.
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Officials in Baghdad and at the Pentagon said the military was prepared, if no peaceful solution materializes, to use two distinct sets of tactics to counter what they viewed as two different insurgencies — both of them dangerous and complex situations on difficult urban battlefields.
One campaign would entail retaking cities around Baghdad, if necessary block by block against an entrenched Sunni foe. The other would involve a series of short, sharp, local strikes at small, elusive bands of Shiite militia in southern cities, continuing until the militia was wiped out. Even as commanders offered a cease-fire to Sunnis in Falluja, allowing Iraqis to try to find a peaceful solution, and postponed any assault on Shiites in Najaf and elsewhere during religious holidays, they prepared for campaigns against foes who showed unexpected discipline and ferocity this week.
"We are on a war footing," said a senior military officer in Baghdad.
President Bush, in his weekly radio address, made clear on Saturday that the battle could last for weeks, after a week in which fighting in Iraq took the lives of 46 American soldiers, several allied soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis. "This week in Iraq, our coalition forces have faced challenges, and taken the fight to the enemy," the president said, without mentioning the exceptionally high rate of casualties. "And our offensive will continue in the weeks ahead."
Senior Pentagon officials and military officers reaffirmed their decision to "confront head-on and defeat" the militiamen loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric leading an insurrection across southern Iraq.
A senior Pentagon official conceded that the conflict with Mr. Sadr's militia had been thrust upon the Americans at an inopportune time, just as they were trying to knit together a broad-based government to establish Iraqi sovereignty on June 30. "Attacking the Sadr militia was not an option anybody wanted," one senior Pentagon official said. "Now we have to go out and do it."
Assessments by American military intelligence put the strength of the Sadr militia at between 300 and 400 hard-core fighters, but note that it can rouse between 3,000 and 6,000 foot soldiers or other sympathizers.
Already, "We think we have taken away a significant capability," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director for operations of the military's task force in Iraq, said in a telephone interview. "It no longer is an offensive threat; but it still remains a threat." General Kimmitt said the order had gone out "to destroy the Sadr militia — deliberately, precisely and powerfully."
But now the militiamen who took control, to varying degrees, in Kut, Kufa, Najaf and a section of Baghdad called Sadr City have broken into small groups, with some already seeming ready to melt away to fight another day. "We believe that many who were wearing the Mahdi Army uniform last Saturday have tucked it under the bed and put their AK's back in the closet," one senior military officer said.
That means detailed intelligence will be required to identify the militia's leadership and important fighters, a factor noted by Mr. Bush in his radio address, which carried a warning of the "struggle and testing" that lay ahead. In Falluja, he said, the Americans "are taking control of the city, block by block." In the south, he said, "they have taken the initiative from al-Sadr's militia."
"Prisoners are being taken, and intelligence is being gathered," Mr. Bush said. "Our decisive actions will continue until these enemies of democracy are dealt with."
But unless something changes, continued fighting of the ferocity of the past week implies continued high casualties on both sides.
nytimes.com |
