Freedom of Insurgents To Move in Western Iraq Curtailed
10 February 2006
U.S. commander says infiltration routes into Iraq have been disrupted
By Jacquelyn S. Porth
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- A U.S. Marine who commands U.S. and Iraqi forces in western Iraq says insurgents in the city of Rutbah no longer have freedom of movement and that routes of infiltration along Iraq’s border with Syria have been disrupted.
Colonel Stephen Davis, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon February 10 via video teleconference from Iraq, also said that the Iraqi security forces that he works with have made good progress in the past 18 months, given the fact that Iraq essentially had to re-establish its military from scratch. (See related article.)
Davis said his forces are assigned to disrupt insurgent operations that are posing obstacles to Iraq’s progress as a free nation. “We have managed to target the networks we’re looking for,” he said, “taking out the facilitators, the financiers, the operations guys.” Any al-Qaida-related activity specifically is targeted, he said.
Asked about efforts to find and eliminate the al-Qaida-affiliated operative Abu Musab al-Zarqarwi, Davis said he is not a specific target. Zarqarwi is a single individual tied to a broader network, he said, and it is the network that “we need to go after and dismantle because that is what is standing in the way of this country getting back on its feet and getting back into the world of nations.”
Davis also said U.S. and Iraqi forces under his command recently completed “Operation Western Shield” designed to establish three military checkpoints through which all traffic in and out of Rutbah must pass. This has restricted the transit of insurgents, smugglers and terrorists, he said.
Most of the residents, Davis said, have been thanking U.S. and Iraqi soldiers who are manning the control points for ridding the town of what they describe as “bad guys.” Asked if the disruptive elements, in effect, are being trapped within the city’s walls, he answered: “I hope so, because sooner or later, we’ll find out who they are.”
Foreign fighters have nothing to offer the general population outside their networks, Davis said. As a result, concerned Iraqi citizens know to provide tips about the troublemakers, the commander said. According to the Multi-National-Iraq Combined Press Information Center, 1,300 tips were recorded across Iraq in January via telephone hot lines and other means. And, once actionable intelligence is offered, Davis said, his forces will do whatever necessary to deal with them.
Since safe haven for terrorists along the Iraqi-Syrian border has been eliminated, Davis added, the insurgents are finding it more difficult to supply their networks. Iraqi Ministry of Interior forces, called “Desert Wolves,” have been particularly effective patrolling the border, he said. It is further evidence, he added, that Iraq is making progress regaining “control of its sovereign borders.”
The numbers of foreign fighters in Iraq have been reduced through a variety of means. During a February 9 military briefing in Baghdad, Army Major General Rick Lynch told reporters at the Combined Press Information Center that 16 foreign fighters were taken into custody in the past seven days.
Davis said he has noticed that the foreign fighters who have come up through the ranks to replace those who have been killed or arrested have not been nearly as well-organized or well-connected as those who came before them.
Perhaps as a correlation, Davis said, terrorists have been recruiting more teenagers, ranging in age from 15 to 17, as suicide bombers. The terrorists are recruiting from vulnerable segments of foreign societies “where they pump these kids full of visions and … bring them to a place like this, ultimately, and, generally, to harm fellow Iraqis and fellow Arabs,” he said.
For more information, see Iraq Update.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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