Iraqi resistance not weakened by the Fallujah assault

[conalrehill]

Last month US Lieutenant General John Sattler hailed the destruction of Fallujah as breaking “the back of the insurgency” in Iraq. The US military claims to have killed over 1,200 Iraqi resistance fighters during its murderous assault on the city and taken prisoner another 2,000 suspected fighters. The city is in ruins, laid waste by thousands of tonnes of American shells, missiles and bullets. Fallujah’s population has been turned into refugees inside their own country, with an estimated 120,000 living in shanty towns and tents in and around the town of Amiriyah, and another 100,000 taking refuge in Baghdad and other cities.



Some four weeks after the assault was launched, however, the claim that this atrocity would intimidate Iraqis and end support for the armed resistance is refuted by what is taking place across Iraq. The slaughter in Fallujah has done nothing to stem the fighting against the US occupation. Hundreds of Iraqi interim government troops, police, officials and mercenary contractors have been killed or wounded over the past month, while American military casualties in December are running at an average of over two killed and 25 wounded every day.



Most attacks on US forces go unreported. Bombings, mortar strikes and ambushes are daily occurrences in Baghdad, with the targets ranging from the Italian embassy to the Green Zone fortress that houses the US embassy and the offices of the interim government. The predominantly Sunni Muslim northern suburbs are effectively war zones. A shopkeeper told Time magazine that the suburb of Alhamiyah was a “little Fallujah in the middle of Baghdad”. For close to a month, US, British and government troops have been attempting to root out the numerous guerilla cells in the towns and villages to the south of Baghdad.



Last weekend alone, insurgents in the capital killed an American soldier, three senior police officers and four men believed to be government employees. On two occasions in the past three weeks, insurgents have launched bold daylight assaults on Baghdad police stations. On November 20, more than 300 insurgents attacked a station in Adhamiyah, triggering a battle that raged for several hours. On December 2, Iraqi fighters successfully seized a station in the city’s south, killing 11 police and freeing over 50 prisoners.



The inability of the US military to secure the capital was highlighted in graphic fashion on December 3. Australian defence minister Robert Hill was unable to even travel from Baghdad airport to the Australian embassy due to fears for his safety. The American military was so stretched at that time that no helicopter was available to pick up the dignitary and fly him across the city.



Three days later, insurgents staged a demonstration in the main Haifa Street district adjacent to the Green Zone, to show their ability to exert control over areas just blocks away from the centre of the occupation. Before American troops in armoured vehicles arrived to drive them off, the guerillas publicly executed a government employee.



According to classified intelligence reports obtained by USA Today and published last weekend, the US military regards the armed opposition not as disconnected, regional-based guerilla groups, but as a sophisticated insurgency, with a centralised command structure that was established before the invasion. While largely based in the predominantly Sunni Muslim regions of central and northern Iraq, the resistance is capable of coordinating operations across the country. US intelligence now estimates that a minimum of 20,000 are actively involved in the armed struggle.



Knowing they could not hope to defeat a concerted US assault on Fallujah, it appears that large numbers of fighters left the city and linked up with resistance cells in other cities and towns. Some of the Iraqis killed during one of the attacks on Baghdad police station were reportedly identified as being from Fallujah.