07 August 2003
U.S. Marines to Provide Logistical Support in Monrovia
Defense Department Report, August 7: Liberia, Iraq, Afghanistan
Air Force Lieutenant General Norton Schwartz says the small team of U.S. Marines that arrived in Monrovia August 6 will provide logistical support as needed for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) mission in Liberia.
Schwartz, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon August 7, said the ECOWAS plan to restore order and stability in Liberia "is unfolding."
Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense Lawrence Di Rita, who also fielded journalists' questions, said the U.S. is helping ECOWAS fulfill its plan "to help restore some stability inside Liberia."
Schwartz, who is the director of operations for the staff of the Joint Chiefs, said there are already 466 Nigerian infantry soldiers on the ground with more on the way. He said they are equipped with vehicles and have been "effectively policing the Roberts International Airport area" since shortly after their arrival on August 4.
COALITION ACTS TO REDUCE HAVOC IN IRAQ
Lieutenant General Schwartz said coalition forces are steadily and deliberately building a more stable Iraq by conducting hundreds of night time patrols and carrying out operations such as "Victory Bounty" to nullify the activities of the now outlawed Saddam Fedayeen forces.
Since last week, he said, more than 70 Fedayeen foot soldiers have been pulled off the street, including some general and field grade officers. Coalition forces are mounting some 2,000 patrols every day in an effort "to track down former regime loyalists and noncompliant forces," Schwartz said.
While hostile forces have adapted their tactics in Iraq, Schwartz said the coalition also has shifted its tactics. "We are engaging the enemy and reducing his ability to wreak havoc," he said.
Schwartz reported some decline in the number of attacks against coalition forces in the past few weeks and attributed this to the existence of more offensive operations that have netted some surface-to-air missiles and 100 120-mm mortar rounds.
At the same time, hostile forces have gone after softer targets such as the Jordanian Embassy on August 7. "I think it is interesting," Schwartz said, "that this clearly was an action targeted at innocents. And we have, obviously, the presence of terrorists in Iraq, along with the Ba'athists that have resisted us, and foreign fighters and so on."
Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said it is virtually impossible to defend against suicide attacks that target embassies beyond what Schwartz described as trying to develop the best possible intelligence. Terrorists are known to be operating in Iraq employing a variety of tactics, he said.
Schwartz said there are about 33,000 Iraqi police officers now on duty throughout the country, with several thousand policing in Baghdad in an effort to provide augmented protection to Iraqi civilians.
Di Rita said "it's all moving in the right direction."
Asked how success will be measured in Iraq, the spokesman said: "an important way to evaluate how effective the entire operation will be over time is the degree to which civil society returns."
COALITION FORCES SHUT DOWN CAVE COMPLEX IN AFGHANISTAN
Lieutenant General Schwartz also addressed security sweeps in Afghanistan, where he said coalition forces continue to conduct "Operation Warrior Sweep" designed "to root out remaining elements of the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists.
Combined U.S. and Afghan forces, Schwartz said, have destroyed a large cave complex near Gardez, secured a dozen separate weapons caches, and detained some individuals.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=August&x=20030807175413htrop0.2808496&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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