Security

Iraqi Troops Subdue Basra

For years, American leaders have been promising that Iraqi forces are just about ready to start leading attacks against insurgents — only to have the soldiers act more like keystone kops than top-notch troops. You remember the mantra: "As they stand up, we’ll stand down." In Basra, it looks like Iraqi forces are finally standing […]

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For years, American leaders have been promising that Iraqi forces are just about ready to start leading attacks against insurgents -- only to have the soldiers act more like keystone kops than top-notch troops. You remember the mantra: "As they stand up, we'll stand down."

In Basra, it looks like Iraqi forces are finally standing up, the *New York Times *reports. "In a rare success, forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki have largely quieted the city, to the initial surprise and growing delight of many inhabitants who only a month ago shuddered under deadly clashes between Iraqi troops and Shiite militias."

“The circle of fear is broken,” said Shaker, owner of a floating restaurant on Basra’s famed Corniche promenade, who, although optimistic, was still afraid to give his full name, as were many of those interviewed...

The principal factor for improvement that people in Basra cite is the deployment of 33,000 members of the Iraqi security forces after the
March 24 start of operations, which allowed the government to blanket the city with checkpoints on every major intersection and highway.

Borrowing tactics from the troop increase in Baghdad, the Iraqi forces raided militia strongholds and arrested hundreds of suspects.
They also seized weapons including mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and sophisticated roadside bombs that officials say were used by
Iranian-backed groups responsible for much of the violence...

*In addition to the 4,000 British troops in Basra, he said, the
Americans sent 800 people, including surveillance experts and around
200 transition team “advisers” embedded with Iraqi troops. *

*An American military spokesman in Baghdad confirmed that one
American had been killed and eight wounded in the Basra operation but said the United States had not had “conventional ground forces in direct support of combat operations.” *

Iraqi commanders acknowledge that the American and British support helped them wrest control of Mahdi Army strongholds like Hayyaniyah — a slum that is Basra’s equivalent of Sadr City — and other poor districts that are fertile recruiting grounds for militias.

But a majority of the military presence on the streets is Iraqi.

[Photo: David Axe]

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