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Shiite militiamen who fled U.S.-Iraqi operations persona non grata
BAGHDAD - Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen who fled U.S.-Iraqi operations in Baghdad hope to return, but the U.S. military is confident they won't receive a warm homecoming, officials said Wednesday. U.S. commanders believe many senior militants escaped the offensives by going to sympathetic areas in southern Iraq and neighboring Iran. That has raised concerns that the militants -- many of them nominally loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- are trying to regroup. "The leadership has by and large departed the area," said Lt. Col. Tim Albers, director of intelligence for U.S. forces in Baghdad. "We do have indications that they want to return." "We're certainly concerned with it," he said during a press briefing. "We're trying to be pre-emptive with our operations to prevent it and make it an inhospitable environment for them."  Those measures include plastering concrete walls, buildings and even armored vehicles with posters of wanted militants to make it harder for them to slip back in to the capital unnoticed, officials said.
"We've got operations to continue to make it an inhospitable area for them to return to so that they cannot get back into Baghdad ... to get the population to realize they're better off without them," Albers said. Tips from local Iraqis have helped the military uncover more than 700 weapons caches in Baghdad since May, the military said. More than 600 suspected Shiite militiamen have been killed or captured during that time, along with 581 suspected members of the predominantly Sunni insurgency, according to the military figures. The U.S. military has said a cease-fire by al-Sadr was a key factor in a sharp decline in violence in the capital in recent weeks. It also credits a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq, a buildup of American troops and an improved Iraqi security force. But attacks continue, including a roadside bombing Monday that killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded another in eastern Baghdad -- the first deadly attack on American troops in the capital in more than a month. The explosion was caused by an armor-piercing bomb known as an explosively formed penetrator, or EFP, that tore through the Humvee in which the soldiers were riding, Col. Allen Batschelet said, providing new details of the attack. Also underscoring the continued dangers, Iraqi troops on Monday seized 28 107 mm Iranian rockets, one 107 mm Chinese rocket and seven 122 mm Russian rockets along with other munitions and videotapes of attacks on American and Iraqi forces. The find was announced Wednesday in a statement by the U.S. military that said the seizure included "new Iranian munitions with a manufacture date of early 2008." The military says it is targeting Shiite militia members who are refusing to adhere to the cease-fire and are armed and trained by Iran. "The attack levels show you that they don't have the capability they once did," Albers said during a press briefing. Overall attacks by Sunni and Shiite extremists have plunged to an average of four a day from about 100 a day in June 2007, military figures say. Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2008-08-07 |
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