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| Iraq |
| US Blueprints Resistance Cells |
| 2004-01-20 |
| I discovered this while checking out the Arab Times story about Israeli jets going into Lebanon’s airspace. It is dated Jan 21, 2004. The US military has recently drawn up "a much clearer picture" of the guerrilla network operating in the Iraqi capital, two senior officials said Monday, after a suicide car bombing in the heart of the city killed 31 people. They said the military had "nonspecific intelligence" that car bombs were being prepared in Baghdad. But the information wasn’t specific enough to prevent Sunday’s suicide bombing outside the US-led coalition’s headquarters. "We think in the past month we have made some significant advances against their organization. We have a much clearer picture of the network and who their cell leaders are," said one official, briefing a group of reporters. He did not say how long it will take the Army to wipe out the network, which officials earlier said was made up of 14 cells, each with 10 to 100 members. The new picture has emerged from intelligence gathered from almost 600 suspected insurgents arrested since November by the 1st Armored Division, which is in charge of the Baghdad area. Saddam’s capture on Dec 13 also helped add clarity to the picture. "What we were able to do was put different pieces together that we knew were out there but it started to look lot more visible in terms of how it is working," he said. As in most insurgencies, the network is compartmentalized and works with semi-independent cells. This protects the network from being penetrated, but it also limits coordination. Still, the cell members know what needs to be done and are allowed to "go out and do it." The cells are made up principally of former Baath party members. The insurgents also include some criminals and "others" who include religious extremists and some foreign insurgents, he said. The foreign fighters comprise a small number although it would appear that the suicide car bombings were carried out by foreigners rather than Iraqis. "Obviously it has to be a guy with a great deal of zeal to punch himself. It’s certainly not a Baath party official," he said. The two officials said that out of 88 neighborhoods in Baghdad, about six are the most troublesome. They said there has been a steady decline in the number of hostile incidents since Saddam’s capture. In early October an average of 15 home-made bombs were being found or exploding in Baghdad every day. Today, the average is five or seven. Hopefully, this ‘blueprint’ will soon result in action that will reduce these incidents to zero per day. |
| Posted by:Gasse Katze |