U.S. Unit Walks 'A Fine Line' In Iraqi Capital
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 6, 2007; A01

BAGHDAD, Feb. 5 -- The camouflaged American soldiers, weary from hours of struggling to talk with Iraqis during a patrol in eastern Baghdad, laughed with relief after an Iraqi army major's wife met them at her door. The soldiers had no interpreter. She had a master's degree in English translation.

"Do you want to work for the Americans?" asked U.S. Army Lt. Anthony Slamar, 26. "Do you want a job as a translator?"

The woman stepped back into her darkened doorway.

"With you? No. Not with you. Do I want to die?" she said. "I am afraid of you, I'm sorry."

The American and Iraqi plan to pacify the capital rests on the assumption that U.S. troops can win the trust of a wary population by protecting civilians trapped amid sectarian warfare. Each day, U.S. soldiers go door-to-door in the city, searching bedrooms and bathrooms, cabinets and closets, for unauthorized weapons. The operations also offer a chance to cultivate Iraqis as sources of information about the violence entangling their neighborhoods.

But soldiers in a task force from the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, who have patrolled Baghdad for months, say that trying to gain cooperation from Iraqi civilians is a thankless struggle. They say they feel powerless to prevent the city's slide into wider war and that Iraqis seldom open up to them with detailed intelligence. Since the task force of more than 800 soldiers arrived in August, 15 of them have been killed.

Although their commanders argue otherwise, the extent of the challenge led some soldiers to express doubt in interviews that the additional 17,500 American troops slated for Baghdad can make a lasting difference.

"I don't think the infantry or pretty much anyone in the United States Army are properly trained to deal with the guerrilla tactics these guys use against us," said Spec. Jeffrey Steele, 22. "This is a policing thing, you know. It needs more investigation into how these guys work, where they're located. I don't think we can do any better."

At 7:30 a.m. Thursday, under a drizzling rain, Slamar gathered his unit in a circle in a gravel lot on their base to brief them on the day's mission. He passed around a photograph of a tire filled with explosives, a new type of roadside bomb found in the sector they patrol.

"They are filled with rifle ammunition, nails and pieces of iron to increase the intensity of the explosion and increase its fragmentation effect. Lovely," Slamar said. "Make sure you're . . . scanning, okay? Hey, now's not the . . . time to give up, all right? We've still got a long deployment ahead of us. Keep on going."

The five-Humvee convoy rumbled out of the camp gates and drove south to Qahira, a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad caught between the Shiite militias in Sadr City to the east and Sunni insurgents in Adhamiyah to the west.

The first goal was to identify potential rooftop sniper positions for a future operation. The troops, armed with M-4 assault rifles, fanned out and soon found a resident, Ahmed, to lead them into a house they wanted to inspect. When the soldiers entered, past plates of orange peels and half-eaten bread in the kitchen, nervous children came down a marble staircase in their pajamas and stood next to their barefoot mother.

"We're just in the area to secure the area, so we're visiting people," said Capt. Andrew Jasso. "There's been a lot of explosions, like on the road here, the bombs."

"No, no, no, no, okay, okay," Ahmed said, motioning toward neighboring houses. "Friend and friend and friend, okay, no problem."

"So this area is pretty good?" Jasso said, sounding dubious. A single bullet hole was visible in the wall above the stairway.

"No problem," Ahmed said.

The lack of an Arabic interpreter -- a chronic problem, the soldiers say -- made communication more difficult. But even when Americans and Iraqis can understand each other, U.S. soldiers said, many Iraqis do not speak openly because they are afraid of being perceived in their neighborhood as collaborating with the Americans.

The Iraqi army major with the English-speaking wife begged the Americans not to reveal his profession to his neighbors, and said he would be risking his life even going outside with them.

"If the people see me with you, they do this," he said, shooting an imaginary gun with his hands. "Okay? Understand? They come and kill me: 'You work with the U.S.A.' "

The American troops took some care to be polite when entering Iraqi homes. During Thursday's six-hour patrol, they handed out Iraqi newspapers and packets of gum and attracted an eager following of young children. But machine-gun-toting Americans rooting through bedrooms, inspecting weapons and demanding identification cards clearly unsettled some residents.

Inside the Iraqi major's house, Jasso tried to put the major's wife and her relatives at ease by telling stories about his two young children. She interrupted him. "Sorry, I have to ask you. Why didn't you just knock at the door? Why did you just jump in?"

A soldier explained to her that the Americans avoid standing in the street in front of houses because of the threat of snipers.

"Just trying not to give everyone a bad impression of Americans is the hardest thing," said Staff Sgt. Andrew McKay, 27. "Being courteous, being nice to the kids, being nice to the families, but still maintaining your military bearing and doing your job -- it's a fine line to walk."

Faced with an often distrustful, frightened populace, members of the task force said they doubted that adding thousands more U.S. troops would change this frustrating dynamic. One soldier, on his second tour in Iraq, said the attitude of the Iraqi civilians toward the Americans continues to deteriorate.

"Whatever new plans they come up with, it won't work out here. It's getting worse and worse," the soldier said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he worried about a reprimand from his superior officers. "I was here last time, in the beginning. Now it's totally changed. They don't even respect us anymore. They spit at us, they throw rocks at us. It wasn't like that before."

Higher-ranking officers with the task force said they see encouraging signs that cooperation with Iraqis will improve as the new security initiative in Baghdad begins.

The unit's acting commander, Maj. Clay Padgett, said the influx of U.S. troops and changes in tactics would generate more intelligence about insurgent and militia activity. He said the troops would move onto smaller bases to increase their presence in violent neighborhoods.

Within the past month, Padgett's task force has set up one office known as a joint security site, or JSS, that brings together representatives from the Iraqi police, army and coalition forces to coordinate information and operations. The new security plan calls for about 35 more such sites spread over Baghdad's nine security districts.

"When you hear the stories about soldiers who say the local Iraqis don't want us to be here, you would be amazed at the amount of tips that have come in just from us establishing inside of the JSS," Padgett said. "And because we're right there" with the Iraqi police, "we're right there inside the community. All of a sudden the community feels as though here's another window of opportunity to come up and talk to coalition forces."

Sgt. 1st Class Luis Enrique Gutierrez Rosales, 38, said most of the Iraqis he has met say they are pleased that the Americans patrol their neighborhoods. "They said they always feel safe when we're around. People stop on the road and say thank you. They say, 'If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't be alive,' " he said.

But some of his soldiers saw less reason to be hopeful about either their relations with the Iraqis or the troop increase. After the patrol on Thursday, Sgt. Michael Hiler, 26, stepped down from his Humvee and described the day's effort as "stupid."

"We should have pulled out a long time ago," Hiler said. "It's going to take the hand of God to change anything about what we do here, which is nothing. This country's going to fall apart sooner or later, and at this point I say, 'Good riddance.' "

Sitting on bunks while waiting for an evening patrol, a group of soldiers discussed the enemy and the latest security effort, described by Padgett as "the last best hope for Iraq."

"All these extra troops start coming into Baghdad, you'll start reducing the anti-American violence. That way, it will show quick results for the Bush administration. And that way, 'Hey, we won the war, let's get out of here,' " said Pfc. Daniel Gomez, 21, a medic. But he said of the forces opposing the Americans: "They're like the Viet Cong, they can wait it out. We're not going to be here forever, and they know that. And then we're gone, and it's all theirs."

Progress in Iraq – Moving Forward with Patience, Will, and Unified Commitment.
Monday, 05 February 2007
By Gen. George Casey, Commander
Multi-National Force - Iraq
Today Iraqis are poised to assume responsibility for their own security by the end of 2007, still with some level of support from us. The path that brought us to this point has not been easy. Two and a half years ago, Iraq was in the throes of an insurgency bent on preventing the establishment of a democracy and was totally dependent on coalition forces for security. But, thru the exercise of patience, will, and Unified Commitment, the Coalition and Iraqis together made a concerted effort to build an Iraq that can secure, sustain and govern itself.

We have made significant steps toward that goal. The Iraqis approved a Constitution, elected a representative government and established a functional democracy. Most Iraqi Security Forces are "In the Lead" with half the Army Divisions under Iraqi control. Three provinces have achieved Provincial Iraqi Control and many others are poised to achieve this status in the coming months. Much has been accomplished but much remains to be done.

Sectarian violence is the greatest threat to Iraq's ability to move forward and achieve security self-reliance. Since February, with the bombing of the al-Askari mosque in Samarra, the sectarian violence in Iraq has greatly complicated our ability to accomplish our strategic objectives. Although eighty percent of sectarian violence occurs within thirty miles of the nation’s capital, it must be overcome before Iraq can truly move forward. The sectarian violence makes it harder for the Iraqi population, traumatized by three decades under Saddam Hussein, to adopt the compromises necessary to equitably resolve the fundamental conflict in Iraq: the division of political and economic power among Iraqis. This challenge of overcoming sectarian violence while establishing a reconciliation process is one we can help the Iraqis address, but one the Iraqis must ultimately resolve for themselves. And I continue to firmly believe that enduring strategic success in Iraq must be achieved by the Iraqi people.

To achieve strategic success Iraqi leaders must demonstrate the political will to put aside sectarian differences and work together to end sectarian violence in Baghdad. Until recently, they have not been able to make the political compromises to achieve commitment to the Baghdad effort. Recently, however, in a series of addresses following his November meeting with President Bush in Amman, Jordan, and continuing through his speech on Army Day on the 6th of January, Prime Minister Maliki, as well as other political and religious leaders, announced a number of political pledges demonstrating the commitment to reduce the violence and initiate reconciliation among the various Iraqi sects. Delivery on these commitments must be monitored, but so far, the results have been heartening.

Now, some will ask why can't the Iraqi security forces do this by themselves? The Iraqi security forces are two and a half years into a three and a half year development process. They are not quite ready to assume security responsibility in Baghdad or Iraq, but they are increasingly ready and willing to take the lead in these security operations with our support. They are also challenged by sectarian tensions and actions that have shaken the confidence of some of their populations in their security forces. And for the Iraqis to successfully assume and sustain security responsibility, their security forces must emerge as the dominant security forces in the country. To do this, political and militia influence over the security forces must be eliminated, and levels of sectarian violence, particularly in the capital, must be brought down substantially, brought down to the point where the people in Baghdad can feel safe in their neighborhoods.

What the Coalition and the Iraqis are doing in Iraq is hard, tough business. Fighting this type of campaign by rebuilding a dilapidated infrastructure, creating a representative government where none existed before, and reconciling ethnic and sectarian differences makes it even more difficult and complex. This is what we are working toward in Baghdad. It will take time, and the Iraqis do need our help.

The Iraqi government is demonstrating the political commitment necessary to overcome sectarian differences. The Iraqi Security Forces have demonstrated their capability to conduct successful counterinsurgency operations. The Coalition has demonstrated its willingness to stand beside their Iraqi partners. Looking back over two and a half years, it is encouraging how far this nation and her security forces have come. Progress is undeniable and by moving Together Forward with patience, will, and Unified Commitment, the struggle in Iraq is winnable.

Officers With PhDs Advising War Effort
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 5, 2007; A01

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, is assembling a small band of warrior-intellectuals -- including a quirky Australian anthropologist, a Princeton economist who is the son of a former U.S. attorney general and a military expert on the Vietnam War sharply critical of its top commanders -- in an eleventh-hour effort to reverse the downward trend in the Iraq war.

Army officers tend to refer to the group as "Petraeus guys." They are smart colonels who have been noticed by Petraeus, and who make up one of the most selective clubs in the world: military officers with doctorates from top-flight universities and combat experience in Iraq.

Essentially, the Army is turning the war over to its dissidents, who have criticized the way the service has operated there the past three years, and is letting them try to wage the war their way.

"Their role is crucial if we are to reverse the effects of four years of conventional mind-set fighting an unconventional war," said a Special Forces colonel who knows some of the officers.

But there is widespread skepticism that even this unusual group, with its specialized knowledge of counterinsurgency methods, will be able to win the battle of Baghdad.

"Petraeus's 'brain trust' is an impressive bunch, but I think it's too late to salvage success in Iraq," said a professor at a military war college, who said he thinks that the general will still not have sufficient troops to implement a genuine counterinsurgency strategy and that the United States really has no solution for the sectarian violence tearing apart Iraq.

"It's too late to make a difference in Iraq," agreed Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University expert on terrorism who has advised the U.S. government on the war effort.

Expanded Role for Academics
Having academic specialists advise top commanders is not new. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., Petraeus's predecessor, established a small panel of counterinsurgency experts, but it was limited to an advisory role. Also, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, created a "Red Team" to examine his operations from the enemy's perspective and to report directly to him.

Still, the team being assembled by Petraeus promises to be both larger and more influential than anything seen in the U.S. war effort so far, both making plans and helping to implement them. The group's members are very much in the high-energy mold of Petraeus, whose 2003-04 tour commanding the 101st Airborne Division in Mosul, the biggest city in northern Iraq, gave the U.S. military one of its few notable success stories of the war. He also holds a PhD in international affairs from Princeton University.

"I cannot think of another case of so many highly educated officers advising a general," said Carter Malkasian, who has advised Marine Corps commanders in Iraq on counterinsurgency and himself holds an Oxford doctorate in the history of war.

As the U.S.-designed campaign to bring security to Baghdad unfolds, Petraeus's chief economic adviser, Col. Michael J. Meese, will coordinate security and reconstruction efforts, trying to ensure that "build" follows the "clear" and "hold" phases of action. Meese also holds a PhD from Princeton, where he studied how the Army historically handled budget cuts. He is the son of former attorney general Edwin Meese III, who was a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, whose December critique helped push the Bush administration to shift its approach in Baghdad.

Petraeus, who along with the group's members declined to be interviewed for this article, has chosen as his chief adviser on counterinsurgency operations an outspoken officer in the Australian Army. Lt. Col. David Kilcullen holds a PhD in anthropology, for which he studied Islamic extremism in Indonesia.

Kilcullen has served in Cyprus, Papua New Guinea and East Timor and most recently was chief strategist for the State Department's counterterrorism office, lent by the Australian government. His 2006 essay "Twenty-Eight Articles: Fundamentals of Company-Level Counterinsurgency" was read by Petraeus, who sent it rocketing around the Army via e-mail. Among Kilcullen's dictums: "Rank is nothing: talent is everything" -- a subversive thought in an organization as hierarchical as the U.S. military.

Veteran Strategists
The two most influential members of the brain trust are likely to be Col. Peter R. Mansoor and Col. H.R. McMaster, whose influence already outstrips their rank. Both men served on a secret panel convened last fall by Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to review Iraq strategy. The panel's core conclusion, never released to the public but briefed to President Bush on Dec. 13, according to an officer on the Joint Staff, was that the U.S. government should "go long" in Iraq by shifting from a combat stance to a long-term training-and-advisory effort.

But to make that shift, the review also concluded, the U.S. military might first have to "spike" its presence by about 20,000 to 30,000 troops to curb sectarian violence and improve security in Baghdad. That is almost exactly what the U.S. government hopes to do over the next eight months.

Mansoor, who commanded a brigade of the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad in 2003-04, received a PhD at Ohio State for a dissertation on how U.S. Army infantry divisions were developed during World War II. He will be Petraeus's executive officer in Baghdad, a key figure in implementing the general's decisions.

McMaster's command of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in northwestern Iraq in 2005-06 provided one of the few bright spots for the U.S. military in Iraq over that year. In a patiently executed campaign, he took back the city of Tall Afar from a terrorist group, and he was so successful that Bush dedicated much of a speech to the operation. McMaster, author of the well-received book "Dereliction of Duty," about the failures of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Vietnam War, is expected to operate for Petraeus as a long-distance adviser on strategy. He is based this year at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London think tank, but is likely to visit Iraq every month or two, according to a top U.S. military officer.

Beyond those senior officers is a larger ring of advisers whose views already are shaping planning for the coming operation in Baghdad.

Lt. Col. Douglas A. Ollivant caught Petraeus's eye last year by winning first prize in an Army "counterinsurgency writing" competition, sponsored by the general, with an essay that scorned the U.S. military's reliance in Iraq on big "forward operating bases." "Having a fortress mentality simply isolates the counterinsurgent from the fight," he wrote.

Ollivant, a veteran of battles in Najaf and Fallujah who earned a political science PhD studying Thomas Jefferson, argued that U.S. forces should instead operate from patrol bases shared with Iraqi military and police units. That is exactly what Petraeus plans to do in the coming months in Baghdad, setting up about three dozen such outposts across the city -- which isn't surprising, considering Ollivant has become a top planner for the U.S. military in Baghdad.

Another adviser will be Ahmed S. Hashim, a professor of strategy at the Naval War College who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then wrote a book sharply critical of how the U.S. military has operated there. Hashim, who holds a PhD from MIT, concluded his critique by arguing that the best course would be to partition the country along ethnic and sectarian lines.

A Different Arena
Many military insiders are skeptical that the extra brainpower ultimately will make much difference, or that lessons learned by McMaster in Tall Afar or Petraeus in Mosul will be easily applied in the far larger arena of Baghdad.

The joke among some staff officers was that Petraeus operated in such a freewheeling manner in Iraq's north that he had his own foreign policy with Syria and Turkey. In Baghdad, by contrast, he will have to operate constantly with Iraqi officials, with the U.S. government bureaucracy, and in the global media spotlight. Also, experts agree that the basic problem in Iraq is political, not military, and that although a military campaign can create a breathing space for politicians, it cannot by itself reverse the dynamic driving Iraqis to fight a civil war.

"It wouldn't surprise me if Congress pulled the rug out or the Iraqis blocked major revisions in strategy," said Erin M. Simpson, a Harvard University counterinsurgency expert. "I think they're going to be a very frustrated group."

Kilcullen, the counterinsurgency adviser, wrote recently on the Web site Small Wars Journal, "All that the new strategy can do is give us a fighting chance of success, and it certainly does give us that."

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

More Important Than Running for President
by Newt Gingrich (more by this author)
Posted 02/05/2007 ET

American Solutions: Countdown to September 27

I went home to Atlanta this week to speak at the Buckhead Coalition, a group of Georgia business men and women and community leaders. I saw friends, supporters and even a few political rivals who I've known for decades. It was a wonderful homecoming.

More than a few people asked me whether or not I'm running for President. My answer is always the same: My focus right now is not on the presidency.

I know this answer confuses the political consultants and reporters who preoccupy themselves over the minutiae of the presidential campaign horse race. But for now, I'm not focused on Nov. 4, 2008. I'm focused on Sept. 27, 2007. Because on that day -- the 13th anniversary of the unveiling of the Contract With America -- the new organization that I've founded, American Solutions, will do something more urgently needed than presidential posturing.

On September 27, American Solutions will reach out across the country to all 511,000-plus elected office holders in America, their staff, and the citizens who are serving or seeking to serve in these offices. Our goal is to create a wave of change that meets America's challenges, seizes our opportunities and builds a better future for all Americans.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like enough to keep anyone busy for the next seven months. And it sounds a lot better than spending that time watching the polls, endlessly fundraising and otherwise navigating the trivial and tortuous two-year march that we have made of our presidential election process.

A New Generation of American Solutions in Jobs, Health and Energy

The purpose of American Solutions is very simple, but very ambitious. We think it's important that we break out of the political cycle that we're in, which consists of 30-second negative commercials, hostile e-mails, candidate cattle calls and canned debates. Instead, American Solutions will focus on developing, on a bipartisan basis, a new generation of solutions to meet the scale of challenges we face:

Solutions that create better jobs with greater income so America can compete with the rise of China and India -- and win.

Solutions in health care so that every American of every background and in every neighborhood can live the longest, healthiest possible life with the best quality of care at the lowest cost.

Solutions to our energy needs that are better for our economy, better for our environment and better for our national security.
In other words, real change.

The Coming Explosion in Science and Technology

I decided to launch this very ambitious project because I am fundamentally optimistic about the future of America. I am optimistic because three great breakthroughs are coming.

The first is in science and technology. In the coming years, there will be more advances in science, creating more knowledge, than we have any notion of how to apply to our daily lives. This represents an enormous opportunity.

Here's just one example of what I'm talking about: Every 16 months, we double the amount of computer power you can buy with a dollar. That means that every decade, the amount of computing power you can buy with a dollar increases by a factor of 100.

What does that mean on a practical level in your life? For starters, it means that health care can be better, safer, cheaper and much more efficient than it is today. To take just one small example, at the Center for Health Transformation we've brought together computer companies, insurers and pharmaceutical companies to help drive the implementation of an electronic prescription capability for doctors and hospitals that is available for free online. Ending the dangerous practice of writing paper prescriptions will reduce medication errors, and that means fewer deaths, fewer emergency room visits and better health care. This is just one application of our advances in science and technology to make a difference in the lives of Americans.

Bringing the Revolution in Private Sector Productivity to Public Sector Problems

The second breakthrough that makes me bullish on America's future -- if we exploit it -- is the dramatic explosion in productivity America has had in manufacturing and private sector services.

Over the past 60 years, we've developed a series of approaches to productivity and quality in the private sector that are revolutionary. Two good examples are how the price of television sets and cell phones has dropped even as their quality has increased. The opportunity to bring these advances to government and public policy is enormous. American Solutions will exploit this opportunity.

Bringing the America That Works to the America That Doesn't

The third and last great breakthrough we will take advantage of at American Solutions isn't really a breakthrough as much as it is a rediscovery.

America works because of our time-tested values. Over time, they have made us the most prosperous, creative and generous nation in history. Our work ethic …well, works. As a general rule, people who get up in the morning and go to work do better than those who don't.

Incentives work. Americans love incentives and despise regulation and coercion.

But what, again, does this mean in our daily lives? Take one of our most serious national crises, the crisis in our public schools. The schools that are failing in this country do not focus on the work ethic and don't use incentives -- and then wonder why they fail. Oprah Winfrey opened a school for girls in South Africa because, as she explained, she has given up on getting the kids on the South side of Chicago to want to learn. This is a devastatingly serious indictment that something isn't working -- and America's kids are paying the price.

When the Detroit public schools only graduate 21 percent of entering freshman on time -- cheating four out of five young people -- this is a serious sign that something has got to change.

American Solutions will highlight how American virtues, habits and principles that we know work can help address the challenges that confront our country. It is simply a matter of applying what we already know works.

This Level of Change Cannot be Created From the Oval Office

So we have our work cut out for us. We will spend the next seven months developing an entire new generation of solutions, making sure they are understandable to the American people and that they are supportable by the American people.

Then, on September 27, we will use the power of the Internet to start to make these solutions available to every candidate from both parties in every elected office in the country.

The goals we have set for American Solutions are a lot more difficult and less conventional than running for President. But I believe they are also a lot more important.

If we can move the entire system -- if we can have school board members committed to incentives, hospital board members exploiting new technology, and state legislators who understand how to bring market principles to public problems -- this country can and will fix itself. This is a level of change that cannot be created from the Oval Office. This level of change has to be brought about by people who care at the local level and want to do common-sense, practical things to make life better for their communities.

Our hope is to reach out across the country and create such a wave of change on a nonpartisan basis that anybody of any background who wants to use science, who wants to use the power of productivity, who wants to revitalize American virtues that work, has the tools to do so and to help others realize their potential as well.

If we can do that, we won't need to fear economic competition from China or India. We won't even need to fear the threats to our survival from rogue dictatorships and their varying alliances with the irreconcilable wing of Islam. And we won't be waiting on Washington politicians to solve our problems.

The liberated energies of 300 million Americans are a dramatically more potent force for good then anyone's force for evil. And I can't think of a more important way to spend the next seven months than helping unleashing that potential. I hope you'll join our effort at American Solutions where you can make a difference.

Your friend,

Newt Gingrich

P.S. - In case you missed it, in my talk at the National Review Institute's Conservative Summit last week, I ended with an extended reflection on how the secular left would never allow advances in desalinization of ocean water to make the deserts habitable and improve the lives of millions. If you're interested, you can listen to it here.

Four Insurgents Killed, 26 Detained in Iraq
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2007 – Coalition forces killed four insurgents and detained 26 others during operations across Iraq in the past two days, military officials said.

Coalition forces raided four buildings today in Karabilah, where a foreign fighter cell reportedly was operating. During the raid, three armed insurgents attempted to engage ground forces.

Coalition forces responded, killing the three insurgents and detaining 13 suspects with alleged ties to the cell.

Elsewhere in Iraq today, coalition forces in Mosul captured four suspected terrorists, including the leader of an al Qaeda in Iraq cell responsible for roadside-bomb attacks against coalition forces, military officials said.

Four suspected insurgents were captured today in Arab Jabour, south of Baghdad, with suspected ties to vehicle-bomb manufacturing.

In Karmah today, four suspects with reported ties to al Qaeda in Iraq foreign fighter facilitation were detained. Additionally, a terrorist with ties to al Qaeda was captured in Baqubah this morning.

During operations in Baqubah yesterday, 5th Iraqi army forces, with coalition advisors, killed a reported leader of an illegal militia responsible for violence and criminal activity in Diyala province.

The suspect is believed to have facilitated and directed numerous kidnappings, assassinations and other attacks against coalition and Iraqi forces and Iraqi civilians, military officials said.

(Compiled from Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)
Related Sites:
Multinational Corps Iraq