The effect of attrition on enemy forces in Iraq

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch:

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We're putting constant pressure on the insurgents in Baghdad. Yesterday he launched 16 IEDs, which only 5 were effective. And this pressure has caused him to do things that are causing him problems, and I'll talk about two examples.

On Saturday there was an explosion in a house in Karada, in the -- (inaudible) -- Karada. Investigation shows that what happened is that six terrorists were there trying to put together an IED. The IED blew up prematurely and killed all six. A similar thing happened out in west Baghdad: two terrorists trying to emplace an IED. Members of the Iraqi army were told by a local citizen of this activity. They moved to stop the activity. By the time they got there it was too late because the IED had already exploded, and one of the terrorists was killed. This is an indication of the pressure we're placing on the insurgents in our operations side of Baghdad. Remember, they still wanted to derail the democratic process. They have the most to lose if the national unity government is formed, and they're full stop trying to stop the formation of the national unity government. So they are continuing attacks in Baghdad. There were 29 attacks yesterday, five less than the day before. And, as I said, 16 IEDs of which only 5 were effective.

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... He's (Zarqawi) still the biggest threat. He's still the guy that's conducting these horrific acts of violence. He's still the guy that was told to stop democracy in Iraq. So we are continuing to search for his leaders. We want to take out his leaders, we want to take out his networks, we want to take out his freedom of movement, we want to take away his munitions. Major operations have been going on for about three months focused on Abu Ayman -- Abu Ayman -- known clear ties to Zarqawi. And if you recall, I talked in a previous press conference about an individual entitled Abu Qatada. Abu Qatada we found and detained about six weeks ago. And what Abu Qatada has been doing over the last six weeks is giving us actual intelligence against Abu Ayman. Abu Ayman was indeed the former aide and the chief of staff-intelligence for the Saddam Hussein regime. We've been working for his capture for a significant amount of time, and he was found and detained by Iraqi security forces, not by coalition forces, on the 7th of March. The reason we're waiting until now to talk about this, is because we wanted to go through the detailed procedure of positive identification, and we used DNA samples to confirm that we had Abu Ayman.

Abu Ayman has done a lot of bad things. He's a primary suspect in the kidnapping of the Italian journalist and many assassination attempts against Iraqi government and Iraqi security force officials, kidnapping and killing of several hostages, lethal IED attacks. He is now off the streets and in coalition custody, based on a significant manhunt, based on actual intelligence, based on information from Abu Qatada, and now we'll continue to interrogate Abu Ayman and find links to other members of the Zarqawi organization.

We continue to press the attack against the insurgents, specifically to press attack against Zarqawi and al Qaeda in Iraq. One way we have effect is taking out his leadership, and we had a significant result with Abu Ayman....

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Q What do you make of reports that Zarqawi has been bumped down and an Iraqi put in charge of the organization he created?

GEN. LYNCH: We're not seeing that. We've seen the same reports. We've done our investigation of the reports, and we don't believe that's true. Zarqawi still has the same prominence in Iraq as he had all along, and he's still our primary target. And apprehension of a guy like Abu Ayman is going to help us work our way towards Zarqawi, and that's just a matter of time.

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Progress in Iraq

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Q General, there's a sense in the States that -- and I understand the progress you're making, but there's a sense in the States that things are not getting better, they're getting worse, and that you're losing control here. What do you say to those people?

GEN. LYNCH: Yeah, I'm worried to death about that, I've got to tell you. I've been here now 10 months, and I sensed that as well when I was back in the States. And as soon as I got here and I studied what we were trying to do, I can attest to the significant progress we're making. If we're trying to help the people of Iraq establish a safe environment, a democratic environment, the progress we're making in two lines is magnificent, that in the last three years built a security force of a quarter of a million people, trained and equipped, that's phenomenal. The Iraqis need a security force that can maintain domestic order and deny Iraq as a safe haven for terrorists, and they're doing that. We're 75 percent of the way there with building this trained and equipped Iraqi security force.

Now, people always want to highlight specific problems. They'll say this group did this or this group did this. But stand away from that for a minute and look at 250,000 people, a quarter of a million, here to maintain domestic order. That is great progress. The other thing that has to happen is political progress. Now, you can say, Well, look at the problems we're having forming a national unity government, but step away from that and say, What have they done in the last three years? They got rid of Saddam Hussein, they formed an interim government, they had an election in January, they drafted and ratified a constitution in October, they had another election in December -- 75 percent of the electoral populace came out to vote -- 11 million people. They've got a Council of Representatives that representative of all Iraqis. And they're going to form a national unity government.

If that's not progress, I don't know what is.

What I worry about is people sit at home -- I'm from Hamilton, Ohio -- people sit at home in Hamilton, Ohio looking at the TV screen and they see the most recent bomb in Baghdad or see the most recent problem with forming the government, and they adopt a philosophy that we're making no progress, and that's only a data point. That's separate from the bigger picture. I'm trying to help you with the bigger picture.

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As always with the weekly press briefings there is much more.