-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: June 23, 2007 6:22:50 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Al Qaeda Leaders "Gone" When US Troops Arrive -- U.S.
Press Blamed
"The little man who wasn't there," as GIs in WWII used to call him.
Al Qaeda knew [in advance] of offensive
Leaders were alerted, fled U.S.-led sweep
By John F. Burns
New York Times, June 23, 20
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-
iraq3jun23,1,4456654.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed07
BAGHDAD -- The U.S. general commanding troops battling to clear
fighters serving with Al Qaeda from Baqouba said Friday that 80
percent of the organization's top leaders in the city fled before
the American-led offensive began earlier this week, just as Al
Qaeda leadership fled Fallujah ahead of the offensive that
recaptured that city in 2004.
Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq,
told reporters that leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq had been alerted to
the Baqouba offensive by widespread public discussion of the
American plan to clear the city before the attack began. He
portrayed Al Qaeda leaders' escape as cowardice, saying that "when
the fight comes, they're gone," abandoning "midlevel" Al Qaeda
leaders and fighters to face the might of American troops -- just,
he said, as they did in Fallujah.
U.S. tipped its hand
Some American officers in Baqouba have blamed Al Qaeda leaders'
flight on public remarks about the offensive in the days before it
began by top U.S. commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, the
overall commander in Iraq. But Odierno cast the issue in broader
terms, saying that Al Qaeda leaders were bound to know an attack
was coming in light of President Bush's decision to pour nearly
30,000 additional troops into the fight in his so-called surge.
"Frankly, I think they knew an operation was coming in Baqouba,"
Odierno said in a teleconference with Pentagon reporters from the
American military headquarters in Baghdad. "They watched the news.
They understood we had a surge. They understood Baqouba was
designated as a problem area. So they knew we were going to come,
sooner or later."
Still, he implied American commanders may have played a part by
flagging the offensive in advance. "I think they were tipped off by
us talking about the surge, the fact that we have a problem in
Diyala province," he said.
On the ground in Baqouba, hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops, under
cover of F-16 warplanes, fought their way into three key
neighborhoods Friday, The Associated Press reported. An AP employee
in the city reported heavy fighting as U.S. troops swept into the
three eastern neighborhoods in the operation, which began after
U.S. forces warned residents to leave or stay indoors.
The American military said 17 Al Qaeda fighters were killed trying
to flee past Iraqi security blockades on the road to Khalis, a
predominantly Shiite city northeast of Baqouba.
In his news conference, Odierno offered the broadest assessment yet
of the multi-pronged American offensive around Baghdad that got
under way this week, using the additional troops sent as part of
Bush's surge. Despite the flight of Al Qaeda leaders from Baqouba
-- a pattern that appears to have been replicated in other areas
included in the new offensive, including Al Qaeda strongholds along
the Tigris south of Baghdad -- he adopted an upbeat tone. He
maintained that the offensive held a "good potential" for reducing
the threat from Al Qaeda to the point that U.S. force levels in
Iraq could be reduced by spring.
First, he said, American and Iraqi troops would need to sustain
their crackdown long enough for Iraqi forces to move into
neighborhoods cleared of Al Qaeda fighters and hold them. This is a
pattern American commanders have tried unsuccessfully before, as in
a failed attempt to secure wide areas of Baghdad last summer. But
Odierno said that Iraqi forces were "getting better," "staying and
fighting," "taking casualties" and adding 7,500 more soldiers to
their overall strength every five weeks.
"If you ask me today, I think by the spring, or earlier, they will
be able to take on a larger portion of their security, which means
I think potentially we could have a decision to reduce our forces,"
he said.
Tempered optimism
He then tempered his optimism, however, aware that top generals
here have made repeated forecasts of turnarounds in the war only
for the situation to get progressively worse. "You know, there's so
many things that could be happening between now and then, as we've
all learned," he said.
Addressing the problems facing American troops in Baqouba, Odierno
played down the significance of Al Qaeda leaders fleeing, saying
American forces would hunt them down. "I guarantee you, we're going
to track down those leaders," he said. "And we're in the process of
doing that. We know who they are, and we're coming after them and
we're going to work that extremely hard."
Before the Baqouba operation, American commanders had said that one
difference from previous offensives that had failed to net top Al
Qaeda leaders would be the use of "blocking maneuvers" around the
city to close off escape routes.
Although that appears to have failed, American commanders in
Baqouba said Friday that several hundred Al Qaeda fighters -- about
80 percent of the recruits who were there when the offensive began
Tuesday -- remained in the western half of the city.
The 10,000-man force of American and Iraqi troops committed to the
battle is one of the largest assembled for any operation outside
Baghdad since the recapture of Fallujah, and the campaign resembles
that offensive in November 2004.
American hopes that the Fallujah offensive would deal a mortal blow
to Al Qaeda were thwarted when the leaders who fled the city moved
elsewhere and resumed the group's trademark pattern of suicide
bombings and assassinations at a higher intensity than before.
But U.S. commanders are more hopeful for the new offensive, now
that they have all five additional Army brigades ordered into the
war under the surge, along with additional Marine units.
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