Hundreds of US troops established positions yesterday in bases around two towns near Baghdad where loyalists from Saddam Hussein’s regime are believed to be holding out.
More than 1 500 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division, the same men who led the invasion of Iraq and captured Baghdad, took up positions on the outskirts of Falluja and Habaniya, west of the capital.
American soldiers have been based in both towns since mid-April but now their numbers are being heavily increased to saturate the areas with patrols and tackle a growing anti-US resistance — two soldiers were killed at a checkpoint in Falluja last week, while seven have died in the past week in small attacks across Iraq.
Outside Falluja the troops established a base in a former entertainment park called Dreamland and a military base once used by the Mojahedin Khalq, an armed Iranian opposition group once supported by Saddam. In Habaniyah, a task force took over two airfields built by the British in the 1950s.
The troops arrived in Kuwait last September, and many yesterday appeared eager to face a new challenge. ”We took Baghdad in one day, probably it will take us half a day to take Falluja,” said a soldier from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, one of the US army’s more experienced fighting forces known as the Spartans.
Some of the soldiers fought in the 1991 Gulf war and all saw heavy fighting in the push to Baghdad in March and April. ”There was a lot of shooting, we shot back,” said the soldier. ”These guys in Falluja are just a little bit more determined. Once you show them who is in charge they are going to understand. They can either move out or die fighting. It’s only a matter of time.”
Many of the Iraqis in Falluja are less confident. The town is in a conservative Sunni Muslim area with strong tribal traditions. Many profited from Saddam, and resent the American presence. When US troops established a base in a school in the town last month it triggered a large protest. Soldiers fired on the crowd on two days, killing 18 people and injuring at least 78.
”I told the Americans this city is very different from other areas,” said Brigadier Riyad Abdul Latif, Falluja’s police chief. ”The Americans have promised us so much but we have seen nothing.”
The police force is in disarray. Stations have been looted, no salaries have been paid, they have no cars and few guns and most officers have stayed at home. ”First they came to liberate us but now we have realised it is an occupation,” he said. ”The problems will increase day by day and this is going to become a very great crisis.”
On the other side of the town at the ill-equipped hospital, Dr Kamal Arif said that most in Falluja would be concerned by a heavy US military presence. ”I think the Americans are not listening. If they start going into people’s houses to search for weapons this is going to anger the people,” he said.
”They said it was a liberation but it’s been two months and where are our salaries, where is the power, the petrol? If you don’t respect these people they will not respect you.”
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that its Special Investigation Branch is questioning soldiers over the deaths of two Iraqi prisoners in the custody of the Black Watch in Basra last month, writes Tania Branigan.
A spokesperson said that the inquiry was routine and that no allegations of mistreatment had been made, but the Daily Mail quoted the father of an unnamed Black Watch soldier who said his son had told him that one of the men had been ”roughed up”.
Two soldiers from another regiment of the 7th Armoured Brigade, the Royal Fusiliers, have been flown back to their barracks in Germany after claims that they punched a prisoner, giving him a black eye. – Guardian Unlimited Â