On February 17 — one day after the US House of Representatives approved a non-binding, bipartisan resolution opposing President George Bush's plan to increase the size of the US occupation force in Iraq by 21,500 combat troops — the commander of US forces in Baghdad announced he had filed a request for even more soldiers.
Hearst News Service reported that US Army General Joseph Fil told a Pentagon news conference via videolink from Baghdad that he has requested additional forces to provide attack helicopters and combat engineers. "Fil's request, if approved, could boost the US buildup planned for Baghdad by more than 7500 soldiers — or about a 44% increase", HNS noted.
Fil told the press briefing that there are currently 35,000 US soldiers, including eight combat brigades, in Baghdad — out of a total of 140,000 US soldiers in Iraq. On January 10, Bush announced that he had approved the deployment of an additional 17,500 combat troops to Baghdad between February and May, and an additional 4000 marines to Iraq's western Anbar province.
Anbar — inhabited by only 6% of Iraq's total population of 26 million — accounted for 44% of all US troop deaths in Iraq last year, up from 35% in 2005.
HNS reported that in response to a question about Fil's troops request, a Pentagon spokesperson "noted that Defense Department officials on Jan. 11, the day after Bush announced his escalation plan, had cited the likelihood of additional troop deployments".
BBC World News reported that Fil defined much more precisely how the new offensive in Baghdad will unfold. It would come in three phases. "The first will be to clear the ground — moving in and removing any obvious threats", the BBC reported. "But the aggression comes in the second phase, controlling the ground, and the pace of the operation will depend on the ability of troops to do that, so they can move onto phase three — retaining it.
"There are 10 [military] districts in Baghdad, and the Americans are planning to quickly establish a major forward base in each of them ... Smaller neighbourhood operating bases will be set up as security allows."
"These though", the BBC added, "will be tempting targets for insurgents armed with mortars and rockets, as Britain found when it tried a similar tactic in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan last year ...
"Fil also said he had asked for more combat helicopters and this could prove to be the Achilles heel of the operation. The US has lost five helicopters to insurgent fire in a month, and there are new weapons out there that are doing the damage ...
"The will of the US was sapped in Vietnam when they began to lose helicopters on a huge scale.
"There is another major weakness in the plan too, and that is the dependence on Iraqi troops. General Fil said their quality was growing every day. But privately, US and British forces who have trained the troops are concerned about the Iraqis' ability to do the job." The news service reported that there was a "mutiny of Iraqi troops in the south when they were ordered to go to Baghdad" last August, at the beginning of a previous "security crackdown".
The new "security" offensive officially began on February 14. Its stated objectives are to crush anti-occupation resistance groups among Baghdad's 6 million residents — referred to by the Pentagon as "al-Qaeda terrorists" and by most of the Western corporate media as "Sunni insurgents" and "Shiite militias".
It appeared that the city's organised armed residents decided not to immediately resist the new US offensive. "But make no mistake, we do not believe ... that's going to continue, and we do expect there are going to be some very rough, difficult days ahead", the BBC reported Fil as saying.
Indeed, given that nearly two-thirds of Iraqis approve of attacks on the US occupation forces (according to a poll conducted last September), a surge in the number of US troop casualties can be expected over the next few months — as happened during the August-October "security crackdown". The White House cancelled that offensive the day after US casualties reached their highest monthly level for 2006.
On February 18, London's Sunday Times reported that the new US-led offensive, officially called Operation Enforcing the Law, has become an excuse for the US-controlled Iraqi "security forces" to terrorise and rob Baghdad residents.
"When Iraqi soldiers and police smashed their way into Mohammed al-Jabouri's home on the first day of Baghdad's latest security crackdown last week, he did not imagine they would steal the family's life savings", the Sunday Times reported. "The security forces separated the men from the women and then ordered Jabouri's wife to give them a suitcase filled with jewellery and £20,000 in cash. When she argued they threatened to shoot her. Then they destroyed the furniture and broke the windows of the cars in the garage ...
"Later the same night, security forces raided a compound containing the homes of 110 university professors and their families. Professor Hameed al-Aathami described what happened. 'They dragged us out of our beds as we slept with our wives and children, took us outside, bound our hands and blindfolded us ... They gathered all the men in the centre of the compound and proceeded to their homes, where they broke furniture, stole money, mobile telephones and jewellery as we sat outside listening to our women and children scream and cry', he said."
The February 20 Christian Science Monitor reported that "Iraqi and American forces are meeting mixed results — that often vary street by street and day by day — as they struggle to regain control of Baghdad". However, it cited only one example of residents welcoming the "security crackdown", reporting that a resident of Baghdad's predominantly Shiite south-eastern Zafaraniyeh neighbourhood said "people are very, very happy" to see an Iraqi police commando unit replaced by an Iraqi Army unit.
"When they came 10 days ago, there was chaos and killing. Since then, I have not heard of a single person being killed", the resident told the Boston-based daily. The US Special Forces-trained police commandos are notorious for carrying out death-squad killings.
Associated Press reported on February 18 that the US military claimed that "Sunni insurgents have been streaming out of Baghdad to escape the security crackdown, carrying the fight to neighboring Diyala province where direct fire attacks on Americans have nearly doubled since last summer, US soldiers say. That has led to sharp fighting only 56 kilometres north of the capital in a province known as 'Little Iraq' because of its near-equal mix of Sunni and Shiite Arabs as well as Kurds."
"I was here in 2004 and I don't remember them ever attacking tanks in open daylight, but now that's exactly what they're doing", Paul Carlock, a US Army captain stationed in Diyala, told AP.
NBC News correspondent Richard Engel reported on December 25 that most of Diyala, estimated to be inhabited by 1.6 million people, had come under the control of "Sunni insurgents".
The January 25 British Independent noted that in "Baquba, the capital of Diyala province north-east of Baghdad, US and Iraqi army commanders were lauding their achievements at a press conference last weekend, claiming: 'The situation in Baquba is reassuring and under control but there are some rumours circulated by bad people.' Within hours, Sunni insurgents kidnapped the mayor and blew up his office."
Baquba "has become one of the most lethal places in Iraq for US troops", the February 19 Washington Post reported. "In the past two weeks, nine members of the US Army battalion responsible for this city of 300,000 have been killed, most as a result of IED [improvised explosive devices] attacks."
The Post also reported that Iraqi resistance fighters "staged a bold daylight assault against a US combat post" 50km north of Baghdad on February 19, killing at least two US soldiers and wounding 17 others.
"The head-on attack was notable for both its tactics and target", the Post observed. "Sunni insurgents have mostly used hit-and-run ambushes, roadside bombs or mortars on US troops and stayed away from direct assaults on fortified military compounds to avoid US firepower ...
"US helicopters evacuated wounded soldiers from the compound — located in the center of the town of Tarmiyah, with more than 20,000 residents — while the fight raged, according to the local accounts. By nightfall, US troops had cordoned off streets around the post ...
"Residents said the attack may have been prompted by fears that US forces would begin house-to-house searches through the town, which is mostly Sunni but has not been considered a stronghold of militant activity."