U.S. Forces Mix Carrots and Sticks

By William Booth and Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Monday, June 16, 2003; Page A18

In Central Iraq, Raids, Then Aid

FALLUJAH, Iraq, June 15 -- The latest effort to pacify the town that U.S. commanders describe as Iraq's most hostile began today with armed house-to-house nighttime searches and ended with a soccer-ball giveaway.

It was all part of Operation Desert Scorpion, which U.S. officers said was a nationwide effort to aggressively hunt and capture Iraqis who have been attacking American forces and to calm the civilian population with a flood of humanitarian aid.

"The idea is to demonstrate that there are certain bad guys that we are targeting, with all the force necessary, but that we are also prepared to use every asset we have to provide assistance for the Iraqi people," a military spokesman, Sgt. Brian Thomas, said in Baghdad.

Second Lt. Kevin Siegrist of the 10th Combat Engineers put it more succinctly: "The message I want to give them is, hey, we're just building a soccer field, okay? So don't keep shooting at us."

Siegrist and his unit were clearing a field just hours after armed troops raided 16 houses -- suspected of hiding Iraqis intent on attacking Americans -- as well as other buildings, including a school. U.S. officials say intelligence information suggests that Baath Party activists and a militia known as Saddam's Fedayeen are holding meetings and reorganizing at a local level in several areas of central Iraq, an area long loyal to deposed president Saddam Hussein.

The raids employed more than 1,000 troops from the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade, and they netted a cache of weapons, bombs, bomb-making materials and communications equipment, a military spokesman said.

Col. David Perkins, the brigade commander in Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, told reporters that his troops arrested seven people at one house who were suspected of being major figures in the resistance to U.S. occupation. An official in Fallujah's mayor's office said that Khamees Sarhan, a senior Baath Party official who was a leader of Hussein's Revolutionary Command Council, was a prime target. U.S. military officials would not say whether they had captured Sarhan.

Today's raid was the second high-profile assault on an Iraqi town in a week. In a similar operation that began last Monday, thousands of troops raided the town of Thuluya, about 45 miles northwest of Baghdad, and rounded up 400 Iraqis. All but 34 have been released.

Lt. Col. Philip Battaglia of the 4th Infantry Division said the goal was "to go in with overwhelming force to squash everything before putting a soldier in harm's way." The U.S. Central Command called last week's raid a "textbook-style joint operation."

However, in Mashahidah, a few miles south of Thuluya, a U.S. military truck was crippled by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from a passing white Volkswagen Passat. At least one soldier was wounded, witnesses said.

The convoy fired volleys in all directions before it left, Iraqis said. Three bystanders were wounded. The Passat escaped and residents of Mashahidah set the truck on fire.

U.S. officers say the daring and sophistication of such attacks support the notion that pro-Hussein groups are reorganizing. Soldiers at a U.S. base located on a dusty airfield near Baqubah, 35 miles north of Baghdad, said their units had come under mortar fire in recent days. River crossings had become a favorite spot for ambush; Baqubah lies near the Tigris River, which in spots is edged by thick date-palm groves.

"When we cross, we are in the open and they're not," said one infantryman. "Someone shot at us yesterday and we couldn't see the muzzle flash, so we didn't know where it was coming from."

At checkpoints, U.S. troops are not only inspecting cars for arms and documents, they are also inspecting motorists, on the lookout for a telltale shoulder tattoo said to be worn by members of Saddam's Fedayeen.

During U.S. forces' initial drive to Baghdad, the Fedayeen harassed supply routes in hit-and-run attacks from the Kuwaiti border to the outskirts of the capital.

"We have indications the old Fedayeen are trying to regroup. We call them New Fedayeen," Maj. Gary Brito, an officer with the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said in a recent interview. "There are also signs of Baath reorganization."

Roundups of suspected subversives have set off a scramble by relatives to find out where the prisoners are being taken.

Salman Shamil, an English speaker from Baqubah, approached the guard house at the nearby U.S. base today to inquire about five cousins who had been arrested at 2 a.m. He said officers at the Baqubah police station had no information on them.

"These people were already arrested in May and released," he told guards from the 200th Engineer Support Platoon. "I just want to know if they are here. What's the problem?"

A guard answered: "Why should we tell you who's inside? It's none of your business. For security reasons, we can't give you any names and can't let you send messages inside. You could be passing secrets to a gang member."

"They are just ordinary people," pleaded Shamil.

"So how come they were arrested?" the guard countered. "We can't have peace until people stop shooting at us. We're still taking mortar rounds. Go to the police station. You can't get help here."

As such confrontations grow more frequent, U.S. troops are making efforts to reward Iraqis as well as raid them. In Fallujah, Capt. Marc Alacqua, a lawyer and reserve officer in the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion, said the idea of Operation Desert Scorpion was also to show the Iraqis more immediate and tangible signs of progress -- by painting schools, putting up blackboards and providing food packages and soccer balls.

Such activities were not new, Alacqua said. Civil affairs units and other troops around Iraq have been working for months to restore the supply of basics such as electricity, water and gasoline while rebuilding hospitals and courthouses and helping reopen banks.

Alacqua said those efforts have fallen behind in Fallujah because of attacks on U.S. troops and the frequent rotations of military units posted here. "We've been doing assessments after assessments, and the people are getting frustrated. They want to see some real progress," said Capt. Rick Little, another member of the civil affairs battalion here.

In any event, the carrot-and-stick approach seemed not to have won over hearts and minds.

"You come to show the good things," said an agitated shop owner. "If they were only doing these good things, everybody would be happy. But what the Americans are doing is not right. They're breaking into our homes, scaring the people, stealing money, harassing the women and throwing our men into your prisons."

The U.S. military engineers, weighed down by heavy flak jackets and helmets, toiled to clear vacant lots of waist-high garbage rotting in 115-degree heat and transform them into soccer fields. They said children threw rocks and bricks at them.

"The problem is that we're here cleaning up their garbage, and I've got to change my route every day so we don't get rocks thrown at our windshields by their kids," said 1st Lt. Mike Robison, a platoon leader from the 489th Engineers.

Robison speculated that the Iraqis really want water, electrical power, money and jobs. "Still, clearing this field and putting up some goalposts for the soccer is something we can get done in two days," he said hopefully. "The Iraqis may get the gist of it."

Williams reported from Baqubah. Correspondent Anthony Shadid in Thuluya contributed to this report.

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