As dawn leaked into the dark morning sky, threatening to steal their night cover, the Iraqi SWAT team drove up to the staging area, riding in the back of pickup trucks and carrying assault rifles slung over their shoulders. Some wore black balaclavas; all wore khakis and blue shirts. And they were an hour late for their rendezvous with the U.S. Marines.
The raids that followed Tuesday on suspected insurgent homes in this farming village 40 miles south of Baghdad yielded little. Only two of 20 suspects on “target lists” were carted off. Six others not on the lists were arrested for questioning. Troops searched an office of militant Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr but found only a pellet rifle and stacks of old newspapers.
Officers from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit who oversaw the mission called it a success, not for what was found but for the participation of an emerging breed of local law enforcement: the Iraqi SWAT team. But the mission also was an illustration of the multiple challenges facing U.S. military commanders as they seek to turn over more security responsibility to Iraqis–and ensure Iraqi loyalty in the process.
The Marines, who are charged with securing this stretch of Iraq between Baghdad and Najaf, have trained 65 SWAT members from nearby Hillah, sharpening their rifle skills and teaching them how to seize and search a house. They hope to increase that number to 200 by December.
“The Iraqis have a major role in this,” said Col. Ronald Johnson, commander of the 2,200 Marines and sailors in the region, as he breakfasted on strawberry Pop Tarts and black coffee on the hood of his Humvee a block from the raid site. “But if they need fire support, they got it.”
It is not always simple. The Iraqi teams often arrive late, U.S. officials said. Some members still lack discipline and motivation and have not earned the trust of U.S. planners, officials said.
After Tuesday’s raids, one resident told Marines that his wife’s jewelry was missing.
Some Marines also fear that briefing Iraqis may lead to mission information being leaked to insurgents–a suspicion fueled Tuesday, when few alleged insurgents and no heavy weapons were found and most of the men were not home.
“There’s always the possibility the information gets out early,” said Capt. Tad Douglas, a platoon commander who helps train the SWAT members. “But if you accept that risk and plan around it, you become more successful.”
Cultivating cooperation
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The mission was an example of the cooperation U.S. military officials are trying to cultivate. While the SWAT members led the raids, they were backed by 200 Marines in armored Humvees and light-armored vehicles, a half-dozen circling Huey and Cobra assault helicopters, U.S. F-18 jets screeching overhead and three Polish platoons adding another 200 soldiers.
The Iraqis pulled up in 21 white pickup trucks emblazoned with their symbol: a black scorpion and a dagger. They knocked on some doors, kicked in others and brought out suspects. Those on the lists were blindfolded and their hands bound with plastic flex-cuffs, and then shuttled to nearby Forward Operating Base Kulsa for questioning.
Their tasks completed, they piled back into the pickups and drove out of town.
“We have a good feeling about this,” said Dhiya Hanza, 25, a university student who witnessed the raids. “We know that if Americans are here, things [infrastructure] get developed. If the bad guys are here, things get destroyed.”
Since taking over the region in July from the Army’s 1st Armored Division, Marines here have been charged with reclaiming the poor, mostly agricultural area south of Baghdad from pockets of insurgents, thugs and criminals, particularly in cities like Latifyah. Outside the spotlight of Baghdad and Fallujah, anti-American forces have mortared U.S. bases, laced highways with roadside bombs and terrorized and murdered Iraqis suspected of working with Americans.
Al Qaeda operatives have paid locals $200 each to attack U.S. convoys, according to U.S. military intelligence officials. Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose followers have claimed responsibility for a string of car bombings, kidnappings and beheadings across Iraq, has been known to appear in the area, they said.
Prominent battleground
Wedged between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, the area, a lush expanse believed to be the biblical site of the Garden of Eden, is a fault line dividing Shiite and Sunni Muslims and has seen extremists from both faiths, plus former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist Party and fighters fleeing battles in Fallujah and Najaf, officials said.
“They just want chaos here at all costs,” said Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s operations officer. “It’s no-man’s land down here.”
Cleaning up the area is impossible without Iraqi help, officials said.
After Tuesday morning’s raids, a team of Marines searching farmhouses near Jarbella for weapons and bombs came across a dome-shaped building. Outside the structure was a pole with speakers and a black flag attached.
The Marines kept walking.
“Mosque,” explained Chief Warrant Officer Kerry Fryer, who was leading. “Unless we have Iraqi police or we’re taking direct fire from there, we don’t go near them.”
The SWAT members came from the Hillah police department, said Douglas, the recon trainer. Their two-week training is done on the Kulsa base and includes techniques in searching and securing a house, first aid, and target training in pistols, shotguns and AK-47 assault rifles, Douglas said.
Despite some basic language and cultural speed bumps, the training has proved successful in missions, Douglas said.
“It’s very important stuff like this succeeds,” he said. “The sooner units like this form and germinate, the sooner we could step back and let them take over their country.”
Hillah police intelligence identified sites in Jarbella as potential insurgent hideouts. Roadside bombs in the areas had recently increased against Polish and Iraqi patrols, so the Marines agreed to develop the operation, putting the Hillah SWAT in the lead, Maxwell said.
The mission was as much political as it was military, and, in that sense, it was a success, Maxwell said.
“If we have to go back there–and we will one day–it’ll be in the middle of the night, with a lot less guys, and we’ll take the bad guys out,” he said. “The main mission [Tuesday] was getting the local cops into the city.”