BAGHDAD — The U.S. Marine Corps has been tasked with organizing an
Iraq Army force to battle Al Qaida in western Iraq.
"We're putting together a sort of 'super company' of Iraqi forces here,"
Lt. Col. Greg Branigan, a senior U.S. adviser to the Iraqis, said. "They
know individual skills. They need their own space so they can come up with
an Iraqi solution to the road ahead."
On June 2, an Iraq Army unit took over patrols of the Anbar town of
Habaniya, between Faluja and Ramadi. A U.S. military statement identified
the unit as the Iraq Army's 1st Division, but did not elaborate, Middle East Newsline reported.
"The Iraqi unit is now responsible for planning and executing their own
operations in Habaniya," the June 6 statement said.
The U.S. plan marked a departure from the overall strategy of training
and mentoring Iraq Army units. Officials said the Marines would monitor and
even support the Iraqi military presence in Hai Al Bakr, but that the
company would be largely on its own.
"They need their own parcel of real estate to find their way," Branigan
said. "They need to make their own mistakes and learn from them. We are not
going to make them into an image of the American Army. They are Iraqis, and
they will make themselves into an effective fighting force in the Iraqi
way."
Officials acknowledge that the increase in Al Qaida strikes has sparked
the collapse of Iraqi security in Anbar. They said Sunnis have refused to
join the Iraq Army and security forces in wake of the assassination of at
least a dozen Sunni tribal chiefs in Anbar since February 2006.
Officials said Marines from
the Battalion Task force I-36 have been training the Iraq
Army's 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 7th Division in a coalition base in Hit.
The Marines have sought to train and deploy a company of the most
motivated soldiers in the Iraq Army battalion. Officials said the company
would contain 140 soldiers and would be sent to Hai Al Bakr, a town
located across the Euphrates River from Hit.
"There are bad guys operating in the area," Iraqi Battalion commander
Lt. Col. Abdul Salam said. "It is not as densely populated, but it will be
an opportunity for us to operate independently."
Officials acknowledged the difficulty of the challenge. They cited Al
Qaida pressure on Iraqi forces in Anbar as well as the high rate of absence
without leave, which stems from the army policy of granting 10 days of leave
per month. The soldiers are not penalized if they don't return.
Branigan and Salam have been touring bases and combat outposts to brief
Iraqi soldiers about the Anbar training project. They stressed that Iraqi
officers would be in charge of patrols and that discipline marked the key to
beating Al Qaida.
"The most important thing is not your weapons, it is you," Branigan told
the the Iraqi soldiers. "You need to show the Iraqi people that the Iraqi
army is growing, it is gaining in capabilities and is becoming a force. The
only way we can lose this is if you do not come back [after leave]."
Officials said the Iraq Army company would begin operations in July.
They expressed hope that additional units would be trained for missions in
Hit, regarded as a major Sunni insurgency stronghold.
"In the next few weeks, we should be operational," Salam said. "That is
when we will see the difference."
