The offensive south of Baghdad

Washington Post:

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In the first week of the southern offensive, known as Marne Torch, five suspected insurgents have been killed and more than 60 others detained. Another U.S. soldier involved in the operation was killed Monday.

"The enemy is very talented out here. There is no doubt he has his game on," said Lt. Col. Kenneth Adgie, commander of the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division, whose soldiers are leading the ground effort here. "It's going to be a long summer." More than 2,000 American troops overall are taking part in the operation, along with about 1,000 Iraqi soldiers.

In past large-scale assaults, U.S. soldiers frequently descended on suspected enemy hideouts only to find that many of the male adults had fled. This time, attack aircraft have dropped thunderous explosives on roads to cut off escape routes. They have destroyed at least 17 boats on the Tigris that soldiers suspected were being used to ferry munitions north to Baghdad. Two other brigades operating on the eastern and western flanks of the Marne Torch operation are trying to keep fighters from leaving the area.

"The key is, we've got to prevent him from moving, and prevent him from the ability to move into Baghdad to create these spectacular attacks," said Col. Terry Ferrell, the commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division, the last of the five new combat brigades to arrive as part of President Bush's troop increase. "We've got to deny him the ability to go somewhere else."

Arab Jubour, almost exclusively Sunni, was home to many prominent members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. For the past year, U.S. soldiers have rarely spent more than a couple of days in the area, commanders said, so insurgents were able to rig a lethal defense of roadside bombs throughout the area.

As in other parts of the country, the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has conducted a repressive campaign of killing and kidnapping among the roughly 3,000 residents of Arab Jubour. Many people have told commanders they fear cooperating with Americans only to be left to the mercy of al-Qaeda in Iraq when the Americans leave. "They truly are scared to death," Adgie said.

"No one has ever stayed," Ferrell said. "We're going in. We're going to kill, capture and defeat that threat. But we're not leaving."

Throughout the operation, B-1 bombers, F-16 fighter jets and other aircraft have bombed roads and suspected weapons storage sites. Eight 2,000-pound bombs were dropped the first night, said Capt. Kevin Carrigan, the brigade's air liaison officer. Screaming jets are flying low across the area in what he called a show of force to intimidate the enemy.

"We took away two weapons caches and we took away their movement," he said. "We're now really surging to try to get things in control here, but it's going to be difficult."

On the ground, the soldiers are moving methodically on foot, searching every house for weapons and attempting to catalogue the local population. So far they have destroyed 17 weapons caches, commanders said.

The American troops established their headquarters, known as Patrol Base Murray, inside a sprawling riverside estate with polished granite floors, orchards out front and an empty swimming pool in the back....

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The war on the south side has not received as much attention as the Arrowhead Ripper phase to the north. It is part of a comprehensive engagement that is putting pressure on the enemy with a swarm like attack everywhere at once making it difficult for him to have a place to run to. The sweeps and the denial will have an effect, but the residual force that is left to keep him from coming back is what will be needed to defeat the enemy. Al Qaeda has alienated the population on this side of Baghdad too, but its intimidation campaign appears to have been more effective. The people seem more cowed by it. We will need to rebuild their confidence in resisting the evil of al Qaeda.