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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Army unit claims victory over sheik |
| 2004-06-23 |
| Again -- will be see this on the front page anywhere? The Army’s powerful 1st Armored Division is proclaiming victory over Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr’s marauding militia that just a month ago seemed on the verge of conquering southern Iraq. The Germany-based division defeated the militia with a mix of American firepower and money paid to informants. Officers today say "Operation Iron Saber" will go down in military history books as one of the most important battles in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. "I’ve got to think this was a watershed operation in terms of how to do things as part of a counterinsurgency," said Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, a West Point graduate and one of two 1st Armored assistant division commanders, in an interview last week as he moved around southern Iraq. "We happened to design a campaign that did very well against this militia." When the division got word April 8 that Sheik al-Sadr’s uprising meant most 1st Armored soldiers would stay and fight, rather than going home as scheduled, it touched off a series of remarkable military maneuvers. Soldiers, tanks and helicopters at a port in Kuwait reversed course, rushing back inside Iraq to battle the Shi’ite cleric’s 10,000-strong army. Within days, a four-tank squadron was rumbling toward the eastern city of Kut. And within hours of arriving, Lt. Col. Mark Calvert and his squadron had cleared the town’s government buildings of the sheik’s so-called Mahdi’s Army. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, 1st Armored commander, huddled with Gen. Hertling and other senior aides to map an overall war strategy. The division would shift from urban combat in Baghdad’s streets to precision strikes amid shrines of great religious significance. Hunting the enemy in tight city streets broadened to patrolling a region the size of Vermont. Gen. Dempsey first needed the locations of Sheik al-Sadr’s rifle-toting henchmen. Average Iraqis, fed up with the militia’s kidnappings and thievery, quickly became spies, as did a few moderate clerics who publicly stayed neutral. Once he had targets, Gen. Dempsey could then map a battle plan for entering four key cities — Karbala, Najaf, Kufa and Diwaniyah. This would be a counterinsurgency fought with 70-ton M-1 Abrams tanks and aerial gunships overhead. It would not be the lightning movements of clandestine commandos, but rather all the brute force the Army could muster, directed at narrowly defined targets. Last week, Sheik al-Sadr surrendered. He called on what was left of his men to cease operations and said he may one day seek public office in a democratic Iraq. Gen. Hertling said Mahdi’s Army is defeated, according the Army’s doctrinal definition of defeat. A few stragglers might be able to fire a rocket-propelled grenade, he said, but noted: "Do they have the capability of launching any kind of offensive operation? Absolutely not." The division estimates it killed at least several thousand militia members. Gen. Dempsey designed "Iron Saber" based on four pillars: massive combat power; information operations to discredit Sheik al-Sadr; rebuilding the Iraqi security forces that fled; and beginning civil affairs operations as quickly as possible, including paying Iraqis to repair damaged public buildings. "As soon as we finished military operations, we immediately began civil-military operations," said Gen. Hertling. "We crossed over from bullets to money." The strike into Kut was followed by an incursion into Diwaniyah. Then an 18-tank battalion entered Karbala, a holy city where precision operations were needed to spare religious shrines. Then soldiers moved into Najaf and Kufa, where Sheik al-Sadr was hiding out and where about 3,000 of his fighters occupied government buildings, mosques, amusement parks and schools. "We were going from outside in to get this guy," Gen. Hertling said. "We had to go after them one city at a time." |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #7 As expected; he'll be the joker in this card game! His end game will be to stir civil war after the handover; within the next 3 years. His goal is to "unite" the Iraqi Islamic sympathizers with the rule of Iran to formulate a defacto 'Super State'!Should he survive, of course and banking on inaction from Israel (interceding into Iranian airspace!!) |
| Posted by: smn 2004-06-23 11:20:15 PM |
| #6 al Sadr has discovered a fundemental truth about democracy: dead constituents don't vote .... except in Chicago. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-06-23 10:02:29 PM |
| #5 The First Armored Division is my old outfit (MOS131) and I'm a little skeptical of this report. "... a four-tank squadron was rumbling toward the eastern city of Kut" When I was a member of that division I was in a three tank SECTION. As I remember, and I could be wrong, American armored outfits don't have squadrons. I think the British call them squadrons. "Then an 18-tank battalion entered Karbala..." Eighteen tanks is hardly a battalion. That number is closer to a platoon. Minor mistakes for a civilian I admit but, if the reporter can't get the basic facts right, it gives me pause to question the whole article. Paul Wolfowitz said recently that the reporters in Iraq are afraid to move so they stay in Baghdad and make up rumors. This may be the case. I'll wait for more confirmation before I get too excited over this. If true, it is one more source of pride in having been a member of "Old Ironsides". |
| Posted by: Larry Everett 2004-06-23 9:38:49 PM |
| #4 I lik Mucky. Mucky mak funny comment sometime. |
| Posted by: Mr. Davis 2004-06-23 8:48:44 PM |
| #3 I hope that all of this is true, but I still wanna see Mucky's head on a pike. |
| Posted by: Craig 2004-06-23 8:34:10 PM |
| #2 Anonymous5333, obviously you don't read the NYT or the LA Times. Nice to see things worked out the way the CPA said they would. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-06-23 5:40:46 PM |
| #1 It's good work...but this is a bit of an overstatement! that just a month ago seemed on the verge of conquering southern Iraq. |
| Posted by: Anonymous5333 2004-06-23 5:17:32 PM |