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Anti-U.S. Iraqis penetrating security forces
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Special to World Tribune.com
GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT.COM
Thursday, December 18, 2003
Anti-coalition guerrillas in Iraq are frustrating efforts to stabilize the country, having penetrated newly formed security and armed forces in Iraq, according to U.S. officials.
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U.S. soldiers carry a box of AK-47 rifles in front of Iraqis arrested during a massive raid in Hawijah.
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Recent attacks on targets in Iraq have been carefully selected and based on good intelligence. The targets have included Japanese, South Korea, Spanish and Italian intelligence and military personnel.
Officials have acknowledged that the coalition is unable to adequately vet recruits. As a result, agents loyal to Saddam have been hired and are working against the coalition.
The guerrillas are a combination of Saddam loyalists -- including former military, intelligence and political agents -- and foreign fighters -- including Islamist terrorists. Iraqi criminals in the pay of Saddam forces also have been involved in attacks.
Officials said the problem stems from a lack of human intelligence capabilities that can develop sources capable of identifying hostile agents.
Gen. John Abizaid told reporters last week that "a number of cells are operating countrywide, primarily in urban areas, that are conducting attacks against the coalition forces and against the Iraqi police and Iraqi civilians."
"There is some indication of regional coordination between the cells," Abizaid said. "We haven't really seen what I would call levels of national coordination, although that remains unknown. I think it's fair to say that there is some level of cooperation between the cells of former regime loyalists and some foreign fighters that are coming in. And it remains to be seen the degree to which the former regime leaders and loyalists are cooperating with terrorists such as Ansar al-Islam, Al Qaida, et cetera, although we suspect that there is some degree of cooperation that exists there, as well."
U.S. officials said pro-Saddam and pro-terrorist Arabic translators have been used against U.S. and coalition forces.
Over the past several months, some 200,000 Iraqi police and militia forces in the form of Iraqi Civil Defense Forces and national army forces have been set up.
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