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NYT: Insurgency Is Fading Fast, Top Marine in Iraq Says
WASHINGTON, March 18 - The top Marine officer in Iraq said Friday that the number of attacks against American troops in Sunni-dominated western Iraq and death tolls had dropped sharply over the last four months, a development that he called evidence that the insurgency was weakening in one of the most violent areas of the country.The officer, Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, head of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, said that insurgents were averaging about 10 attacks a day, and that fewer than two of those attacks killed or wounded American forces or damaged equipment. That compared with 25 attacks a day, five of them with casualties or damage, in the weeks leading up to the pivotal battle of Falluja in November, he said. In a wide-ranging, 45-minute telephone interview from his headquarters just outside Falluja, General Sattler said temporary checkpoints set up by Marine patrols had disrupted insurgent activity. He said that several hundred hard-core jihadists and former members of Saddam Husseinââ¬s government and security services were still operating in Anbar Province, but that the declining frequency of the attacks indicated that the rebelsâ⬠influence was waning. "Theyââ¬re way down on their attempts, and even more on their effectiveness," General Sattler said. Several senior military officials have noted, however, that many insurgents fled before or during the Falluja battle to fight elsewhere in Iraq. And although there are fewer lethal attacks in western Iraq, commanders say, remotely controlled bombs used against American and Iraqi forces in other parts of the country have become more deadly. Many bombs, for instance, are artillery shells strung together and buried under roadways. Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a tour of Iraq and other Persian Gulf states this week that the number of attacks throughout the country had fallen to 40 to 50 a day - far fewer than in the weeks before the Jan. 30 elections but roughly the same number as a year ago. Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that 12,000 to 20,000 hard-core insurgents were operating in Iraq. That is about the same range American intelligence officers have given since October. "We still have a lot of work to do," acknowledged General Sattler, who will wrap up a seven-month command tour on March 27 and hand off to Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force. Snip Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-03-20 |
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