After cordoning off the Sarai neighborhood of Tal Afar, U.S. troops are waiting for residents to leave before executing the assault. The residents are refusing to leave. Ethnic Sunni Turkmens make up the majority of those living in the Sarai neighborhood, and they fear reprisals from the Shiite minority if they follow the proscribed evacuation route, which takes them south through the Shiite neighborhoods. U.S. troops are negotiating with the residents.
United Press International‘s Pam Hess has some excellent background information on Tal Afar, including the mosaic of tribal and ethnic relationships in the city; “Tall’ Afar is home to 82 different tribes. Each with up to 12 sub-tribes. Tribes are comprised of both Sunnis and Shi’a, as the two groups intermarry regularly.” While the tribal, religious and ethnic makeup of the neighborhoods and cities in Iraq can seem daunting, positive results in formerly violent areas such as Sadr City in Baghdad shows that success can be had.
She also highlights the deftness of Lt. Col. Christopher Hickey in dealing with the local tribal politics and culture. This knowledge is a crucial element in fighting a successful counterinsurgency campaign. LTC Dickey, the Sabre Squadron commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, has skillfully engaged the tribes and ethnic groups of Tal Afar.
Hickey and his troopers have only been coming to this Sunni section of Tall ‘Afar for the last two months; it took them that long to negotiate a way into the neighborhood, which is believed to be home to a number of the town’s insurgents. Protected by tanks and Bradley armored vehicles, Hickey could have muscled his way in. But the military’s secret weapon in Iraq is men like Hickey — officers who take the lay of the land and figure out how to pursue their mission by means other than overwhelming force.
LTC Hickey is not unique to Iraq. Michael Yon has documented LTC Kurilla’s grasp of Iraqi culture and his skill at fighting the insurgency in Mosul (LTC Kurilla has been wounded in action and is now stateside). Grim has pointed pointed out the efforts of Captain Leggett, USMC, and Army Staff Sergeant Dale Horn. The list goes on. These men and others like them are able warriors and diplomats, well suited to conduct insurgency warfare despite their training in Cold War tactics.
If the residents of the Saria neighborhood cannot be convinced to leave the impending combat zone, and the Coalition decides to conduct the assault, the fighting will be bloody indeed. Al Qaeda is notorious for using civilians as human shields and fighting from homes with civilians present to increase the propaganda value and destroy the image of the U.S. military and government.
While the assault on Fallujah last fall has been portrayed by many antiwar activists and elements of the foreign and domestic media as an abuse of U.S. power, the residents of Tal Afar (and no doubt elsewhere in Iraq) fear an assault of this nature, thus proving that direct force still has its place in modern war.
“To Fallujah” has now become a verb for Iraqis, Hickey explained later, synonymous with the violent leveling of a recalcitrant city. In mid July, in fact, Baghdad ominously announced that there would be a “solution” to the Tall ‘Afar “problem” within 10 days. Three dozen men from Tall ‘Afar and Mosul went to Baghdad to meet with the government to circumvent “a Fallujah.”
Ms. Hess also confirms that the operations in Tal Afar are indeed part of a ‘clear and hold’ mission. The troops of the 3rd ACR will not be abandoning Tal Afar to the predations of al Qaeda and the insurgency, but stay to restore and maintain order in a strategic city along one of al Qaeda’s main ratlines from Syria. It now appears that Phase II of the Anbar Campaign is in effect.
8 Comments
Terrorist near Syria found with plans for the attacks on the UK
MOSUL, Iraq — A terrorist captured near the Syrian border last month had a computer “thumb drive” that contained planning information about the July 7 suicide bombings in London, according to a U.S. military officer.
Col. Robert Brown, commander of the 1st Brigade 25th Infantry Division in Mosul, said that the man was captured north of Qaim in western Iraq and that authorities had connected him to the al Qaeda terrorist network.
It is the first evidence of a link between the London bombs and terrorists in Iraq, but fits with other evidence of a growing presence in Iraq by al Qaeda, which has taken responsibility for the British attacks.
Col. Brown declined to discuss the specific nature of the information on the thumb drive — a miniature data storage device that plugs into a computer’s USB port — but said it indicated al Qaeda involvement in the attacks on London’s bus and subway system.
“I don’t think anyone’s done a good enough job explaining” the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda, he said.
Bashar al-Naher, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, told The Washington Times that he had not heard about the Mosul discovery but said, “This does not surprise me. We are noting a pattern of involvement by [Iraqi hard-liners] in terrorist plots abroad.”
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050906-102658-7545r.htm
———————————————
Basically, what this shows is what I have believed for some time that Zarqawi does have operation oversight over much of al-Qaeda, especailly in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. And, that he doesn’t want attacks linked back to him in Iraq, because that would hurt his goal of getting Western publics to decide Iraq isn’t worth it and give up the fight.
That is why Zarqawi had some BS group first claim credit for the attacks on our ships in Jordan and he only admitted that he was behind them a week later after they captured some of his men, by that time everyone knew he was behind it anyway.
Basically, Zarqawi wants to spread his operations, but doesn’t want the world community to know he is spreading them, because he relies on the publics in America and Europe saying the war is wrong and that they want the troops home, because they are tired of the whole thing. Zarqawi knows that if he comes right out and hits Europe hard with a spectacular and does what Bin Laden did after 911, which was basically come out with video after video taunting and gloating. Then you are going to see support for the US mission in Iraq flip from 20% to 80% overnight.
I suspect Zarqawi will keep supporting mid to low intensity attacks like Madrid and London. He might go for a spectacular, but I suspect he will do so only after he is sure he can’t win in Iraq.
Then you are going to see support for the US mission in Iraq flip from 20% to 80% overnight.
————————————————
Just to be clear I was talking about Europe here. They are overwelmingly for the US pulling out right away.
However, it would also affect the US is Zarqawi pulled a spectacular like that in Europe.
I am extremely encouraged by this post. What I am curious about is whether or not any of the lame stream media will survive such successful military operations? The next year or two will probably see many of those media lose readers and viewers even more drastically. Like other enemy supporters, they should be elimimated and they will be, but by their enraged former viewers and readers.
I have no real clue as to what the Iraqi’s will do in October or December elections….. except that they will vote! That is driving the Stalinists at International Answer and the NY Times even more insane.
Progress for the military and the free Iraqi government is indeed the worst nightmare of Zarqawi, Moveon.org, Michael Moore, bin Laden & al-Queda, Howard Dean, Jaques Chirac and the New York Times.
I see no real differences in their enemy thinking, so I list them all together.
leaddog2, I like your thoughts. Certainly my sentiments. As far as the ‘Terrorists’. I’m not so sure they actually have an ‘agenda’. I’m more convinced they are just serial killers. They just Enjoy killing and nothing less. So many talk of their martyrdom, but I’m not totally convinced. It just reminds me of what Golda Meir once said, ‘There will be peace when those people love their own more than they hate us’. I’m not sure fanaticism explains it all. Maybe is just a desire and pleasure of seeing death.
Just a thought I had.
This knowledge that Lt. Col. Hickey has took time to learn and is much more valuable than uparmored humvees. Even if the planning & plans were perfect the knowledge Lt. Col. Hickey has would have taken time to acquire and much of what has transpired would still have transpired.
GJ: “Maybe is just a desire and pleasure of seeing death”
You’re right. It is. It’s a death cult.
U.S. mulls “decisive” attack on Iraqi rebel town
08 Sep 2005 17:12:55 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Sebastian Alison
BAGHDAD, Sept 8 (Reuters) – The United States is considering an all-out military attack in the coming weeks against the town of Tal Afar in northern Iraq, which it sees as a stronghold of rebellion, a U.S. general said on Thursday.
U.S. and Iraqi troops have been battling insurgents in Tal Afar, west of the northern city of Mosul, for several days. A joint U.S.-Iraqi military statement said they killed seven insurgents on Wednesday.
Many families have evacuated the town in recent days as violence increased.
“In Tal Afar, coalition forces and members of the Iraqi security forces are preparing a possible military operation to rid that city of insurgents,” Major General Rick Lynch told a news briefing in Baghdad.
“As we speak, operations are ongoing to evacuate civilians from neighbourhoods targeted by the insurgents.”
The United States sees Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, as a conduit for foreign fighters and military equipment coming into Iraq to help insurgents fighting the occupying U.S. forces and the Shi’ite Muslim- and Kurdish- dominated Iraqi government.
The insurgents are mainly drawn from Iraq’s third main community, Sunni Arabs, who account for some 20 percent of the population and have dominated Iraqi politics for decades, under ousted leader Saddam Hussein and before.
“You will see, over the next several weeks — we’re not specifying any time — specific military operations to target the insurgency in Tal Afar,” Lynch said.
FOREIGN FIGHTERS
He said U.S. forces were encouraging the evacuation so a possible military strike would avoid civilian deaths.
“If indeed decisive military operations are required, we want to ensure that the attacks take place to kill the insurgents without collateral damage in killing innocent civilians.”
He said U.S. forces had “indications” that insurgents were living in Tal Afar, and intelligence reports suggested some 20 percent of them were “foreign fighters”. He did not say where they came from.
Lynch added that U.S. and Iraqi forces had been trying to wipe out the insurgency in a series of operations since May, culminating in the operations of the last few days.
They have so far failed to put down rebellions, but Lynch said the growing number of U.S.-trained Iraqi government troops — there are now 190,000 of them — should mean the resources were in place to quell future insurgencies.
“We have now sufficient assets available between the coalition forces and Iraqi security forces … to leave behind a robust security presence so the insurgents cannot return.”
Lynch warned against seeing any attack on Tal Afar as a re-run of an attack in November on the city of Falluja.
U.S. troops surrounded that Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad and effectively cut it off, but encountered fierce resistance and bloodshed when they entered.
“Every situation is different. Don’t try to equate Tal Afar with any previous operation,” he said.
cjr,
I actually watched the press conference(on the pentagon channel http://www.pentagonchannel.mil/ ) that AlReuters references. (Al Reuters is a bit angry that one of their sound men got killed, and one of their reporters is being “detained” for an indefinite period)
I personally didn’t get the impression that an “All out assault” was being planned on Tal Afar. The impression I got was that Tal Afar and surrounding areas was going to be cleared of insurgents.
A section of TalAfar has been cordoned off and civilians are being asked to leave.
IMHO, there is an expectation that the insurgents in this neighborhood will be fighting to the death, which opens the possibility of needing to use artillery and close air support in an area of high density population(pretty tough to take out the 1st floor apartment without taking out the second and third floors).
Operations in Tal Afar have been ongoing – 7 detained and 4 killed today.
http://www.strykernews.com/#004165