Professional raid in Iraq points to new armed phase

An audacious attack on an Iraqi police station that left more than 20 people dead on Saturday was the work of a well-trained military unit, American officials said last night.
The main police station in Fallujah was overwhelmed in an operation far more sophisticated than the suicide bombings and ambushes that have been the hallmark of resistance to the US-led occupation.

Observers said this could signal a new phase in assaults on the Americans and those assisting them in Iraq.
Up to 70 gunmen attacked the police station with machineguns, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades. A second team of insurgents pinned down Iraqi security forces at a nearby compound to stop them assisting their colleagues.
Up to 100 prisoners at the police station were freed during the half-hour battle. "This was something put together by people with knowledge of small-unit tactics," said a senior US official.
"It was a complex, well-coordinated attack. This would not be the same tactics that al-Qa'eda would employ. These are military tactics."

At the Fallujah police headquarters yesterday, bullet-riddled walls bore testimony to the ferocity of the assault.
Witnesses described a group of men calmly unloading equipment and weaponry from cars parked nearby. The two guards at the station's fortified entrance were quickly overpowered.
"There was so much firing we thought the Americans were attacking us," said Sgt Mohammed Ahmed, who was wounded in the arm as he returned fire.
He described how he was mistaken for dead as gunmen began clearing rooms with gunfire and grenades. "These people were professional and violent," said Sgt Ahmed, who returned to the station for guard duty yesterday. "I pray I never see them again."

Fallujah has long been at the heart of the resistance to the occupation although, in recent months, a strategic withdrawal of US soldiers from the centre has lessened the number of attacks.
Fallujans remain deeply opposed to the American presence and to the Iraqi security officials whom they accuse of being collaborators.

According to some reports, shopkeepers near the police station were tipped off about the attack, but did not pass the information to the police.
"We're trying to convince the people in Fallujah we're here to protect them and they must work with us," said Brig Aboud Farhan, the police chief.
He said investigations into the attack were focusing on the prisoners freed during the raid. The week before, 15 southern Iraqis had been arrested, raising the possibility that militants or criminal gangs from the predominantly Shia Muslim south might have been involved.

But the tactical sophistication of the strike suggested that former members of Saddam Hussein's military might have had a role in it.
"We think Iraqis carried out this attack - not foreign fighters," said Brig Farhan.

The bloodshed in Fallujah capped a particularly violent week in which more than 100 people were killed in suicide bombings at a police station south of Baghdad and at an army recruiting centre in the capital.
Those attacks - blamed by America on al-Qa'eda operatives - have shaken support among Iraqis working with the US-led coalition.

In Fallujah yesterday, little effort was being made to recapture the escaped prisoners. Instead, Iraqi security men were in a state of heightened alert after threats of an imminent car-bomb attack.
"This is a terrible job to have," said Mohammed Abbas, 22, a local policeman. "Fallujah is too dangerous for the Americans to patrol in, so they've left it to us to get shot at and killed."

An ex-Ba'ath Party official, ranked number 41 on America's "most-wanted list" of 55, was arrested yesterday during the first operation to capture one of the top fugitives conducted solely by Iraqi police.
Mohammad Zimam Abd Razzaq al-Saadun was held by Iraqi special police at his Baghdad home, said Ahmed Kazem Ibrahim, the deputy interior minister

Where are these insurgents conducting rehersals? Where are they reconstituting? Are we seeing the emergence of a Viet Cong-like element in Iraq? These are a few of the questions I'd like to ask the senior commanders in Iraq.

the Telegraph must have searched hard for this comment:

..."Fallujah is too dangerous for the Americans to patrol in, so they've left it to us to get shot at and killed."...

If they're going to fight in the open-mano y mano-they have made a mistake.

Arabs attempting anything close to 20th century tactics on the battlefield is always a losing deal for them.

4 posted on 02/15/2004 5:48:09 PM PST by zarf (..where lieth those little things with the sort of raffia work base that has an attachment?)

It's Fallujah, for Christs sake. What do you expect?

I personally can't wait till July. It is time to pull our troops back to a few large bases in the desert. Our duties should involve border security and availability should the Iraqi government require firepower.

It seems to me that they are unlikely to be able to carry off this kind of raid very often. It exposes too many of their men to being wiped out in one action. "Up to 100 prisoners at the police station were freed during the half-hour battle." Presumably in the future we could be prepared to respond on a moments notice to any similar raid, now that we know the enemy is thinking in such terms. A fast reaction force could presumably get there in a fairly short time, cut off the retreat, and allow the whole force to be captured or killed. Iraq is very poor terrain for hiding largescale guerrilla operations.

We were prepared to respond but the ICDC responded instead. They ended up with the terrorists running away. Actually, they did a pretty good job. We do have to make sure the IP is better armed, I heard they only had 60 rounds of ammunition each.

Maybe what we're going to need to do is to salt the IP with a few special ops guys who have access to some heavier weapons.

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