When Maliki launched the surprise operation on March 25, Sadr's militiamen pounded government forces with bomb blasts and rocket, mortar and sniper fire. A battalion from the 1st Division's 1st Brigade was the only army unit left standing in the city with a contingent of national policemen and Iraqi special forces.
Pinned down at a police station, the 2nd Battalion was outmanned and outgunned but kept firing. Things got better when a team of Marine advisors arrived two days later and started calling in air and artillery strikes.
"I will be honest," said the battalion commander, a hulking colonel in a Marine flight suit and aviator glasses who asked to be identified as Imad. "Without the American support, we would not have accomplished the mission."
The brigade saw four soldiers killed and 47 wounded in Basra. But the toll would have been worse without U.S. medevac flights and treatment facilities. The local hospitals were controlled by Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
Maliki avoided another major showdown by announcing subsequent operations in advance, giving insurgents time to lay down their weapons before sending in troops.
"It's kind of a media op, which is probably having the same effect with fewer casualties than if they turned up and just started clearing," said Marine Lt. Col. Chuck Western, chief advisor to the 1st Division's 1st Brigade.
However, the strategy also frustrates U.S. commanders, and some Iraqi ones, who prefer to maintain the element of surprise so they can capture or kill opponents. Many militant leaders have slipped away ahead of the offensives.
A string of recent car bombings and suicide attacks in Mosul, nearby Tall Afar and the Diyala provincial capital, Baqubah, could signal that some Sunni fighters are regrouping. The main challenge in Diyala has been the number of bombs hidden along roads and in abandoned homes. The Iraqi army does not have the armored route-clearance vehicles used by Americans; one officer disarmed dozens of them with a pair of scissors.
Division commander Brig. Gen. Adel Abbas worries about what will happen in Diyala when his troops leave. If local forces "take a nap again," he said, "we will be wasting our time."
--
alexandra.zavis@latimes.com
