Antiwar.com Blog

Two U.S. Troops, Civilians Missing in Iraq -Official

Two American troops and an unknown number of civilian contractors are missing in Iraq after an attack on a fuel convoy west of Baghdad, a Defense Department official said on Friday.

“We do have the two U.S. service members unaccounted for, and an unknown number of contractors,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

No other details of those missing were immediately available.

Witnesses at the scene of the convoy attack said at least nine people were killed. Several vehicles were ablaze and overturned.

A Reuters photographer on the scene said the convoy included U.S. military vehicles and fuel tankers.

More detail on the incident in question here: Insurgents Hold Highway

The main highway west out of Baghdad is held by the Iraqi insurgents. They’ve destroyed a fuel convoy, killing nine people. Most news stories are reporting one US soldier dead in this incident so presumably the other 8 are Iraqi.

Hundreds of militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikov assault rifles were running along the highway or hiding in houses nearby, the correspondent said.

US troops were positioned on a bridge that links the old and new highway while insurgents controlled the stretch of highway between Abu Gharib and Fallujah further west.

Armed militants were also stationed outside Abu Gharib prison, an infamous jail under Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime which has been reopened by the US-led coalition.

“Thursday night there was a violent attack against the prison and the Americans left their positions,” one of the insurgents said who declined to be named.

“Around 55 prisoners managed to escape,” he added.

His claims could not be immediately confirmed from coalition sources.

In the distance a battle raged. Loud blasts and automatic weapons fire could be heard.

An AFP photographer reported earlier that fierce clashes pitted US troops against insurgents in Abu Gharib.

US tanks commanded the entrance to the town, 10km west of Baghdad, but insurgents armed with anti-tank rockets and Kalashnikov assault rifles were seen running through the streets.

Apparently the Americans haven’t tried to retake the highway. It is unclear at this time what the status of the prison at Abu Gharib is. There are reportedly thousands of prisoners, mostly Iraqi, held there. From the above report it appears that some have escaped. Reuters is running the above rather disturbing photographs. On the left two Iraqi boys are holding an American military uniform. On the right they are looting a flaming military vehicle.

What is it about putting on a uniform that makes the person in it no longer an individual? I guess that’s part of the purpose, to make them less of an individual, less human. And if that person is killed, they often become just a name and number on a casualty list. The young men and women who have died serving in Iraq were real people with families and hobbies and pets, with jobs and plans for a future that now no longer exists for them. Please let’s not forget their lives, as we step up the rally to bring the rest of the troops home.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has done a fine job in keeping their memories alive with individual biographies. Please take the time to at least acquaint yourself with a few of these soldiers who have given their lives:

Profiles of Americans Who Have Died

The accounts of the American assault on Kut indicate that the resistance had left before the US arrived.

U.S. troops fanned out across Kut, southeast of the capital, after meeting little resistance in the city, witnesses said, in a major foray by the U.S. military into the south, where U.S. allies have struggled to deal with the uprising by the al-Mahdi Army, led by a radical Shiite cleric.

U.S. forces moved into Kut two days after Ukrainian forces abandoned the city in the face of heavy fighting with followers of the anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Police in several cities have also abandoned their stations or stood aside as the gunmen roam the streets – raising concerns over the performance and loyalty of a force U.S. administrators are counting on to keep security in the future Iraq.

This “retaking” of Kut is the reason the 1st Armored Division, which was to be rotated out of Iraq next week, was held over.

Signaling a strategic shift, the Pentagon has directed elements of the Army’s 1st Armored Division, which has patrolled Baghdad since May and was scheduled to go home within weeks, to move south. Those seasoned troops are needed to help retake cities from Sadr’s militia and to patrol parts of the country that had been occupied by multinational troops of varying combat readiness.

“We are waiting for American forces to come in and restore the peace,” said a coalition official in the south who asked for anonymity because his comments were not in keeping with the coalition’s upbeat public message. “The multinational forces will not do this – they refuse to leave their bases and do routine patrols. In some cases, they’ve withdrawn and refused to fight or hold their ground against minimal attacks.”

So, I think we can conclude that the Americans moved massive firepower into Kut while Sadr’s guerillas faded away leaving the Americans as sitting ducks, trying to hold territory. This American response to Sadr’s guerilla army is a monumental blunder. The Americans seem obsessed about taking government buildings and police stations back from Sadr’s men, when undoubtedly the goal of taking the police stations and government buildings in the first place has already been accomplished by Sadr’s insurgents, which would be to take all weapons and ammunition and wreck communications. Why take back a stripped building? What’s the point?

The NYTimes reports today: Also, the Pentagon has received new intelligence reports warning that Sunni and Shiite militia groups have been ransacking Iraqi police stations in some cities, and then handing out both weapons and police uniforms to angry mobs, government officials said.

Clearly, there are not enough American troops to hold all Iraqi territory militarily. A political solution is necessary to end the violence, but the Americans in Iraq seem incapable of dropping their bravado military stance in favor of negotiation.

With almost a complete media blackout of the events unfolding in Fallujah, about the only information source has become bloggers in Iraq and Al-Jazeera’s camera crews. From Riverbend:

Today, the day the Iraqi Puppets hail “National Day”, will mark the day of the “Falloojeh Massacre”… Bremer has called for a truce and ceasefire in Falloojeh very recently and claimed that the bombing will stop, but the bombing continues as I write this. Over 300 are dead in Falloojeh and they have taken to burying the dead in the town football field because they aren’t allowed near the cemetery. The bodies are decomposing in the heat and the people are struggling to bury them as quickly as they arrive. The football field that once supported running, youthful feet and cheering fans has turned into a mass grave holding men, women and children.

One Year Later

Fallujah (warning: graphic photos)

At first, it seemed to be a random attack. But now the security firm — Blackwater USA — said the workers were lured into a planned ambush by men they thought were friendly members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.

A Blackwater official told The New York Times that the company doesn’t know if the men were active members of the corps or impostors wearing corps uniforms.

Another interesting detail to add to the growing collection of examples showing that the ICDC and Iraqi “Police” have turned on their “coalition” masters and are actively engaged in the insurgency.

You may have noticed that when the US marines first announced the siege of Fallujah, they claimed that there were Iraqi ICDC with them, some stories saying two battalions. All mention of Iraqis fighting for the coalition has disappeared.

Here is a story rather amusing in hindsight, of the last ICDC payday before the siege.

After walking out the gates of the Marines’ base on Saturday with wads of Iraqi dinars —- the local currency —- in their hands, many of the troops could be seen shedding their uniforms and donning civilian clothes for the ride back into town. They are not yet ready to come out as America’s allies, some of the Marines said.

From the NYTimes story, Security Firm Says Its Workers Were Lured Into Iraqi Ambush

Imposters or not, he said, the incident underscored deepening concern about the reliability of the Iraqi civil defense forces at a time when allied troops are fighting in many parts of Iraq to suppress militant Sunni and Shiite groups.

Mr. Toohey’s account, if confirmed, could deflect blame for the incident from Blackwater, which is based in Moyock, N.C. And the company’s initial findings are in line with recent complaints from senior American officials about Iraqi forces.

In testimony last month to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American commander in the Middle East, spoke openly of his worries about the Iraqi security and police forces, now numbering more than 200,000.

“There’s no doubt that terrorists and insurgents will attempt to infiltrate the security forces,” he said. “We know it’s happening, and we know it has happened. We attempt to do our best with regard to vetting people.”

Also, the Pentagon has received new intelligence reports warning that Sunni and Shiite militia groups have been ransacking Iraqi police stations in some cities, and then handing out both weapons and police uniforms to angry mobs, government officials said.

Yesterday, the interim interior minister of Iraq, the official responsible for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, resigned, citing criticism from L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator. Although Blackwater provides for Mr. Bremer’s personal security detail, it is not clear whether Mr. Bremer’s criticism specifically related to the Falluja attack on the Blackwater team.

“There’s a question about whether they were set up and whether it was an inside job by Iraqi civil defense people,” one American intelligence official said. “That’s a problem across Iraq, knowing which of the so-called Iraqi police forces are on our side and on their side. There’s no question there is information flowing out to the bad guys.”

UPDATE – On the NYTimes article linked above, Jim Henley directs us to this post by flit, who makes a devastating observation.

The drivers and other witnesses, he said, described “a classic, well-planned vehicle ambush” in which the five-vehicle convoy was suddenly blocked from the front and the rear by vehicles.

“The ICDC blocked the road, and the ambush happened,” he said, referring to the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, a force trained by the United States to guard roads and utilities and to fight insurgents. The assailants first “opened up at point-blank range” on the rear car in the convoy, he said, then fired on the lead vehicle.

* The Times doesn’t explicitly say it, but the implication is clear: they trapped them all, and then let the Iraqis go. (Remember, this is allegedly the same Fallujah ICDC who Reynolds and Sullivan and many others praised last month as the new minutemen, too.)

A couple other things are clarified now:

• The three flatbed trucks being guarded were for moving kitchen equipment, presumably for Regency Hoteliers. No food involved.
• The convoy met their “escorts” at the intersection of Highways 10 and 1, but the ambush itself occurred deeper inside the city proper.