Force to space issue persists in Iraq

Christian Science Monitor:

A Sunni tribal sheikh was on the phone. Sixty Al Qaeda fighters had returned to a nearby village Friday. Could the Iraqi Army commander in western Diyala Province please send help?

The militants had been chased out just 10 days ago by Iraqi forces, who were backed by American air cover. At the same time, the US-led operation "Arrowhead Ripper" was under way to reclaim the nearby provincial capital of Baquba.

But Col. Ali Mahmoud's 750 soldiers were tied up, struggling to secure one of the country's main north-south highways (at night, militants plant roadside bombs; in the morning, soldiers clear them). He told the sheikh he didn't have the manpower or equipment to return to the village.

Colonel Mahmoud's dilemma is one of the key challenges facing US and Iraqi forces in Diyala. Without more men, weapons, and vehicles, Iraqi forces are a long way from holding the areas cleared so far, such as the western section of Baquba where Al Qaeda had been entrenched, says everyone from Gen. Mick Bednarek, commander of the Diyala operation involving 10,000 US troops, to the average US soldier.

To even get back to the village of Sufayet, where the sheikh says some 60 fighters believed to be part of the Islamic State in Iraq – an Al Qaeda-linked umbrella group – are now hunkered down, his men would have to wait for US mine-clearing vehicles and tanks to lead the way as the roads to the village have been rigged with improvised explosive devices (IEDs). His US advisers tell him that's impossible now since US forces and equipment are tied up elsewhere in the province.

...

The Iraqi police are either absent from most villages or in many instances cooperate with Shiite militias.

"That has been our most difficult task [in dealing with] the Iraqi security forces. As we stand up and grow and sustain them for the long-term, can they, in fact, take over the security of this country? It's going to be a long road ahead and we are clearly not there yet," says General Bednarek, a native of Alexandria, Va.

Bednarek says while the focus now is on restoring law and order in Baquba, a city of about 300,000, the operation will spread to other parts of the province in coming weeks in pursuit of Al Qaeda militants.

But for many Iraqi and American soldiers there is a sense of déjà vu in this operation since many parts of Diyala, such as Sufayet, had been cleared of insurgents before only to fall back in their sway.

"It's an endless cycle, we keep searching. There aren't enough soldiers to cover the areas," says Sgt. Stephen Hayes from Greenville, Ohio, who is part of one of the surge brigades sent to Diyala.

Sheikh Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi of the pro-insurgency Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars sums it up this way: "The resistance will not settle down and defend a piece of land. It's all hit and run."

...

When you are having to buy the same real estate more than once, you do not have an adequate force to space ratio. The Iraqis are going to have to come up with the troops to fill this need. They need to start with local militias that could deal with 60 insurgents and hold them off until air power can be brought to bear.