www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040407-124311-9361r.htm
Sheik al-Sadrs bid to spark a widespread uprising in Iraq comes at a particularly pivotal time. The United States is conducting a massive troop rotation that leaves inexperienced troops in some locations, including Fallujah, which is west of Baghdad and where Sunnis have mounted another series of rebellions. Rumsfeld said yesterday that he will consider more United States forces for Iraq if his top commander there, Gen. There are about 130,000 United States troops in Iraq, and the force strength is scheduled to shrink by 15,000 once the rotation is completed. The commanders are using the excess of forces that happen to be in there because of the deployment process, Mr. They will decide what they need, and they will get what they need. Sheik al-Sadr, who has traveled to Iran and met with its hard-line Shiite clerics, is an ardent foe of the United States who wants all foreign troops to leave. The United States suspects that his goal is to create a hard-line Shiite regime in Iraq modeled after Tehrans government. Military sources said Sheik al-Sadr is being aided directly by Irans Revolutionary Guard, which plays a large role in running that country, and by Hezbollah, an Iranian-created terrorist group based in Lebanon. One of the sources said these two organizations are supplying the cleric with money, spiritual support and possibly weapons. Sheik al-Sadr upped the ante during the weekend by calling for his 3,000-strong militia, the Army of the Mahdi, to begin attacking coalition forces. The Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad announced on Monday that an Iraqi judge months ago had issued an arrest warrant for Sheik al-Sadr on a charge of murdering a moderate Shiite cleric. The question for United States commanders is how to arrest Sheik al-Sadr without further enraging his small but violent group of followers. John Hillen, a former Army captain who fought in Operation Desert Storm during the 1991 Persian Gulf war, said the first step should be to try to discredit the cleric, using the condemnation of moderate Shiite leaders, before arresting him. Youve got to discredit him by his own people and find legitimate sources on our side. Make this as much a Shiite-to-Shiite issue as opposed to the Americans versus Sadr. The United States military is trying new tactics to try to quell insurgents in Fallujah, avoiding time-consuming house-to-house sweeps in favor of targeted raids based on hard intelligence. When the 82nd Airborne Division first tried to subdue Fallujah in the summer, units went block by block to locate insurgents. Now, in the second intense battle for the city of Saddam Hussein loyalists, intelligence collection has improved and United States Marines can target specific dwellings. Hillen said such precision operations mean that the Marines are getting good intelligence. If you have good intelligence beforehand, which is the key to the whole Fallujah-type operations, you can at the same time be precise and overwhelming. Weve been in and around Fallujah for quite some time, and Im sure we have some pretty good intelligence sources there. Rumsfeld said part of the intelligence resources are photographs of Iraqis who participated in the killings and mutilations of four American contractors. The former military commandos were serving as security staff in Fallujah and moving on a main road frequently traveled by coalition personnel when they were ambushed. They have photographs of a good many people who were involved in the attacks against the individuals, and they have been conducting raids in the city against high-value targets, Mr. And it will be a methodical effort to find the individuals who were involved.
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