Article

2007-06-03 Iraq

Insurgents Combating Successful Surge with "More Sophisticated" Attacks

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Bobby 2007-06-03 06:32|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 Buried as deep as a terrorist IED, the Washington Post plants the lede in paragraphs 19 and 20 :

Commanders credit U.S. military operations with sharply lowering civilian deaths in Baghdad. The numbers of civilians killed and wounded as well as sectarian murders have all fallen roughly 50 percent in Baghdad in the 90 days ending in mid-May, compared with the previous three months, Simmons said, despite what some military officials described as a slight upturn in civilian deaths in May.

U.S. patrols and raids have also uncovered nearly 2,500 weapons caches and killed or captured more than 20,000 insurgents, militia members and other fighters nationwide since January. Among the enemy killed or captured are more than 1,700 individual targets considered "high value," in what military officials and analysts say is an effort to eliminate leaders of enemy cells in hopes they cannot quickly be replaced.

Our troops and commanders are achieving an enormous victory and despite its visceral anti-American position, even the Post can't deny the results.

Posted by mrp 2007-06-03 07:25|| 2007-06-03 07:25|| Front Page Top

#2 Maybe that's what makes it front-page news, mrp. But I always was an optimist.

Posted by Bobby 2007-06-03 07:55|| 2007-06-03 07:55|| Front Page Top

#3 The press is the enemy.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2007-06-03 08:23|| 2007-06-03 08:23|| Front Page Top

#4 "I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast." - William Tecumseh Sherman

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-06-03 08:45|| 2007-06-03 08:45|| Front Page Top

#5 20,000 enemy is close to a division, as far as sheer numbers go. This is an extraordinary defeat for the AIF.

Granted, they probably come from multiple factions, but combatants are a minority in any population, and as brutally as all the AIF factions have been punished so far, this must take a lot of the wind out of their sails.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-06-03 09:14|| 2007-06-03 09:14|| Front Page Top

#6 I might also add that the 1,700 "high value" targets are about equivalent to the AIF as are officers to an army.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-06-03 09:15|| 2007-06-03 09:15|| Front Page Top

#7 Buried also is the question why the enemy (I refuse to call them insurgents) has suddenly been able to -- unobserved -- do the presumably more extensive work of planting those bigger roadside bombs that are so much more effective. Is it perhaps that these aren't actually bigger bombs, but the improved technology shipped in from Iran?

Separately, Anonymoose, I seem to be having a brain hiccup. What does AIF stand for?

Posted by trailing wife 2007-06-03 09:33|| 2007-06-03 09:33|| Front Page Top

#8 Anti-Iraqi Forces, TW, if I remember correctly.

Posted by Bobby 2007-06-03 10:34|| 2007-06-03 10:34|| Front Page Top

#9 Thank you, Bobby dear. That's much more useful than "the enemy".

Posted by trailing wife 2007-06-03 11:36|| 2007-06-03 11:36|| Front Page Top

#10 For some reason, the war in Iraq is of much less concern now that we have conclusive proof Bush is selling the US out on immigration. Our worst enemies apparently aren't in the ME, they're in Washington and we're doing a much worse job of fighting them.

Posted by Mac 2007-06-03 12:14|| 2007-06-03 12:14|| Front Page Top

#11 One disturbing aspect of the IED threat is the fact that locals could make huge cash awards by disclosing the locations of these, but don't. However, I have heard of several instances where terrorist ambushes have been destroyed after local intel was gathered. Hopefully, the intel gap will close.

Posted by McZoid 2007-06-03 12:15|| 2007-06-03 12:15|| Front Page Top

#12 "planting those bigger roadside bombs"

My suspicion is that these bombs aren't new. Rather it is that we are penetrating into their inner sanctuaries and encountering IEDs that have been there for a while.

P.S. If we have killed or captured 20,000 AIF and lost 500 soldiers, that's a 40:1 ratio.

Al

Posted by Frozen Al 2007-06-03 12:52|| 2007-06-03 12:52|| Front Page Top

#13 Wish I could share in your enthusiasm. However, IMO, Iraq is unwinnable: the civilians that US forces save today are the terrorists of tomorrow.

Posted by gromgoru 2007-06-03 14:30|| 2007-06-03 14:30|| Front Page Top

#14 From General Ordino's briefing, linked by Frank in the Terrorist Death Watch article -

And what we're finding is, the insurgents and extremists use IEDs as their own little security and support zones. And they use large buried IEDs in areas we have not been before. and

In terms of the IEDs, the problem is they're getting bigger and bigger, and it has a lot to do with because we were not in these areas, so it gave them time to make bigger IEDs and bury them. As we get more presence in these areas, it'll be more difficult for them to do that, and that's kind of what I was referring to as they develop what we call a little security zone around their positions by developing these.

Posted by Bobby 2007-06-03 14:32|| 2007-06-03 14:32|| Front Page Top

#15 More good news from General Ordino's briefing. SInce 15 January:

235 Battalion Operations in Iraq
29 Car/Truck Bomb Factories Neutralized
6 IED Cells Dismantled
17,946 Detained During Operations
3184 Enemy KIA, 1016 Enemy WIA (Confirmed)
Over 1700 HVTs (291 killed, 1499 detained)
2493 Caches Found and Cleared

98 Battalion Operations Conducted (in Baghdad)
6 Car/Truck Bomb Factories Neutralized
4 IED Cells Dismantled
6518 Detainees
837 Enemy KIA, 180 Enemy WIA (Confirmed)
752 Caches Found and Cleared
441 caches found in Baghdad Security Districts so far in 2007 surpasses the 266 found in all of 2006

I like it.

Posted by Bobby 2007-06-03 14:37|| 2007-06-03 14:37|| Front Page Top

#16 So what #14 and #15 mean, girls and boys, is that Frozen Al is correct in #12. The larger IED's are not the result of the mighty insurgents skillfully adapting to the US military - as suggested by WaPo and other MSM. It means wee are penetrating deeper into zones where we didn't use to go.

Sort of like the kamikaze attacks in WW II were the Japanese "skillfully adapting" to the overwhelming US power. They did a lot of damage, but did not stop the juggernaut.

Posted by Bobby 2007-06-03 14:49|| 2007-06-03 14:49|| Front Page Top

#17 I strongly suggest that our efforts in driving the rats out of Baghdad suddenly opened up an exploitation opportunity in its outlaying regions.

That is, one of the hallmarks of good military leadership is when your attack turns into a rout of the enemy, to be able to pursue and destroy them before they can retreat and reorganize.

Though they are not calling it a "pursuit" openly, we have tremendous momentum carrying us into the last strongholds of the enemy.

In the final analysis, this may truly be the final campaign of the war, because after this, there will be no sanctuary, anywhere in country, where they can flee or reorganize.

If my estimation is correct, only the Shiite lands in the South will have any chance to be problematic, and then only for a short while when the British pull out. Even the odds of that happening are quickly receding, with the breakup of the Mehdi army.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-06-03 19:15|| 2007-06-03 19:15|| Front Page Top

#18 Buried also is the question why the enemy (I refuse to call them insurgents) has suddenly been able to -- unobserved -- do the presumably more extensive work of planting those bigger roadside bombs that are so much more effective. Is it perhaps that these aren't actually bigger bombs, but the improved technology shipped in from Iran?

Yeah, like more explosive power per kg of IED. The better question is, why is the US allowing this stuff to be imported into Iraq?

Posted by Injun Ebbavitch1977 2007-06-03 20:16|| 2007-06-03 20:16|| Front Page Top

#19 In the final analysis, this may truly be the final campaign of the war, because after this, there will be no sanctuary, anywhere in country, where they can flee or reorganize.

You're getting your asked kicked, what are you talking about.
U.S. military: 14 U.S. soldiers killed over weekend

Posted by Injun Ebbavitch1977 2007-06-03 20:23|| 2007-06-03 20:23|| Front Page Top

#20 Hmmmm Traitor Joe, ass kicked? You wouldn't know, having been no closer to the front than a humanities course for pass/fail at a 3rd level college....or did you fail High School?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-06-03 22:42|| 2007-06-03 22:42|| Front Page Top

23:12 USN, ret.
22:47 SR-71
22:46 RD
22:45 Redneck Jim
22:42 Frank G
22:40 RD
22:37 Redneck Jim
22:29 Sholuque Hatfield5140
22:28 Redneck Jim
22:26 3dc
22:21 RD
22:17 RD
22:16 Danking70
21:52 Frank G
21:38 newc
21:07 Pappy
21:05 RD
20:52 3dc
20:41 Whusoter Lumumba8696
20:35 Captain America
20:27 Woodrow Clomoter1684
20:24 Injun Ebbavitch1977
20:24 Woodrow Clomoter1684
20:23 Injun Ebbavitch1977