Ambush Kills 20 Iraqi Men Searching For Weapons

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
September 25, 2008
Pg. 17

By Alissa J. Rubin
BAGHDAD — At least 20 Iraqi men were killed in an ambush on Wednesday as they searched for [FONT=Times New Roman, Times]weapons[/FONT] in an agricultural area that had been held by extremist Sunni insurgent groups, the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army officials said.
The men, from a joint force of National Police officers and members of the local Awakening Council, an armed neighborhood group backed by the Americans, were operating in a district near the Diyala River, about an hour’s drive north of Baghdad. Their patrol was organized with little or no consultation with the Iraqi Army or the American military in the area, local Iraqi security commanders said.
“The problem is that most members of the police are from other provinces, so they do not have any idea about the terrain in this neighborhood,” said Lt. Col. Sabah al-Tamimi of the Diyala police.
“These forces had not faced a real battle before, because they conducted most patrols in safe areas, and that led to excessive self-confidence,” he said. “Conducting operations in these areas without support from the Iraqi Army or from the multinational forces is a suicide mission.”
Violence has seemed to be increasing lately in Diyala Province, despite a high-profile campaign over the summer by the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and the American forces to rid it of insurgents. The ambush suggested that some of the most hardened of the Sunni fighters were again active in Diyala.
A largely agricultural area, Diyala Province is home to Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds who live in neighboring villages, which has led to vicious ethnic and sectarian violence. Over the past three years, Diyala has been one of the two or three most violent provinces in Iraq, and the area along the Diyala River has been particularly rife with insurgents. Shiite militias and Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, which American intelligence describes is a homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group with some foreign leadership, have been active there.
Early this week, bombs severely damaged two schools. Many efforts have been made to stop Shiite families from returning to their homes. Before the ambush on Wednesday, three policemen were killed and five others were wounded in the same area.
But the attack near Khan Bani Saad was the most lethal in recent months — some estimates put the death toll at 35. On Wednesday morning a combined police and Awakening Council force entered the area known as the Azzawi gardens, a district of orchards and large bushes that was controlled by the extremist Sunni insurgency until spring of this year. With the increasing military presence in the area, their influence dwindled until recently, when they reappeared.
Several officers in the security forces and local people said the insurgents had been waiting for the victims. Fire came from all sides and many had no chance to escape. The gun battle lasted about 20 minutes, said Ahmed al-Masoudi, a tribal leader from Dulaim, a village nearby.
“Our village lost many men today,” Mr. Masoudi said. “The best of our men were killed in the ambush. Three Awakening leaders were killed and another six members from the Awakening.”
Muhammad al-Dulaimi, a member of the Awakening force involved in the battle, said most of the military operations there were done with air support from the Americans, and often some ground presence as well.
When the National Police and the Awakening forces ran into trouble, no security forces — Iraqi or American — were near enough to help them quickly. A newly arrived Iraqi Army unit from the Kurdish area of northern Diyala was a couple of miles away but did not help. Another Iraqi Army unit responded too late, said a colonel from the Fifth Division of the Iraqi Army, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
There were [FONT=Times New Roman, Times]also[/FONT] reports of widespread cyberattacks on the Web sites of Shiite clerics. An Iranian news agency reported that about 200 sites had been hacked.
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Diyala.[/FONT]
 
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