Dubbed “Operation River Blitz,” the Anbar offensive is a continuation of the second phase of the Iraq war that began with the November Fallujah assault. Its primary objective is to destroy the elite units of the Iraqi army from the deposed Baath Party regime of Saddam Hussein, which maintained much of their weaponry and cohesion as they melted away in the face of the U.S.-led takeover of Baghdad in April 2003. These Baathist units have been the backbone of the withering campaign of bombings, ambushes, kidnappings, and assassinations directed at the U.S.-imposed interim government in Iraq and the occupation forces.
A measure of the increasing isolation of the Baathists was the response to a February 28 suicide car bombing in the Shiite town of Hillah, which killed 135 people and wounded 141. It was the deadliest single bomb attack of the war. The blast mainly killed young police and Iraqi national guard recruits waiting at a clinic for medical checkups. Shoppers in a nearby market, including women and children, also died. A statement on the Internet by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaeda in Iraq took responsibility for the bombing. The statement was not immediately verified.
Associated Press reported that on March 1 more than 2,000 Iraqis held a spontaneous demonstration outside the clinic, chanting “No to terrorism!” “No to Baathism and Wahhabism!” Wahhabism is a form of Sunni Islam adhered to by Osama bin Laden. Some also condemned interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi or local officials for failing to prevent the attack.
A black banner hung outside the market offering condolences for “innocent martyrs of this rural southern town at the hands of the sinful traitorous terrorists during the cowardly attack,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
Meanwhile, several developments highlight further the instability of the newly elected Iraqi government and the political space that has opened for working people and oppressed groups since the collapse of Hussein’s party police state. Leaders of the Kurdish slate that won the second largest number of votes in the January 30 elections have outlined their conditions for entering a bloc with Shiite-led parties to form a new government. They include strengthening the Kurd’s autonomy in northeastern Iraq and Kurdish control of the province that contains the oil-rich city Kirkuk.
‘Operation River Blitz’
U.S.-led forces began operations in late February in the towns of Ramadi, Hit, Baghdadi, Haqlaniyah, and Haditha—all in the Anbar province west of Baghdad. The Hussein regime had maintained a strong base of support in the Sunni Arab population of the province, and since Hussein’s fall, the Baathist-led insurgency has operated with relative freedom. Residents of Ramadi started to flee the city, many fearing a repeat of the U.S. assault on Fallujah last November, Reuters reported. A curfew is in effect from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Checkpoints have been set up throughout the city and at least 100 individuals have been detained, al-Jazeera TV reported.
“Unmanned drones, their engines buzzing like lawn mowers, regularly scan the city’s warren of alleys,” the Christian Science Monitor reported February 24 from the city of Hit. U.S. Marines have detained all former police officers there. Last October the police allowed armed insurgents to take over the police station without a fight, the Monitor reports. The U.S. military suspects the police of sympathizing with the Baathists.
In Haqlaniyah, U.S. warplanes reportedly dropped 500-pound bombs on targets, while an AC-130 gunship fired 40 mm rounds in support of U.S. troops.
At a February 22 Pentagon briefing in Washington, Gen. David Rodriguez said the operation is expected to be of a “significantly lesser degree” than what took place in Fallujah. In the current operation the Marines intend to “ride that fine line…where we don’t spoil the goodwill that’s here…while still having enough force so if the enemy decides to fight we can kill them,” said Lt. Col. Steven Dinauer. To that end, said the Monitor, in addition to their regular complement of tanks, mortars, and grenades, the Marines have also brought along a lawyer, $20,000 to pay for damages, and dozens of soccer balls.
In his Pentagon briefing General Rodriguez noted that attacks on U.S., Iraqi, and civilian targets have been “down a little bit since the election.” He also said that although the attacks on Shiites during the Muslim Ashura holiday have been bloody they were a third less than in the previous year.
Rodriguez also said that “the noose is closing” around Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaeda in Iraq. “Over the past several weeks there’s been several capture-or-kill of several of the key people in his network.” With backing and collaboration from the Baathist elements financing and leading the insurgency, this group has claimed responsibility for numerous beheadings, kidnappings, and assaults on Iraqi civilians.
The Iraqi government announced that a top leader of the group had been captured February 20. Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, was captured that day. Al-Dulaymi was responsible for finding safe houses and transportation for members of the group, according to the Iraqi government announcement.
Kurds press to strengthen autonomy
Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish regional government, said the Kurdish leaders would only agree to a deal on the formation of a new national government if they are given control of disputed areas in the north of the country, including Kirkuk, a major oil center. Since 1991 the main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), have administered three northeastern provinces in Iraq as an autonomous region. The area is popularly known as Iraqi Kurdistan.
Kurds are taking advantage of the election results to press their demands for increased autonomy for the region. A unified slate led by the KDP and PUK is projected to win 75 seats in the 275-seat national assembly. The Kurds are in a strong position to negotiate with the Shiite-led slate, which won a slim majority, but far short of the two-thirds needed to form the government on its own.
In addition, the Kurds want to maintain a provision in the interim constitution, known as the Transitional Administrative Law, which allows a two-thirds majority in any three provinces to block the ratification of a new constitution.
A February 17 report in the Kurdistan Observer, based on an interview with KDP leader Massoud Barzani, outlined the Kurdish demands:
According to the London-based Independent, Kurds also want the right of return for Kurdish refugees. In the months leading up to the election thousands of Kurds returned to Kirkuk and many others throughout the northern regions registered to vote in town. Kurds want Kirkuk returned to Kurdish control in order to reverse the Arabization campaign carried out by the Hussein regime, which brutally removed thousands of Kurds from the region in the 1970s and 1980s. Kurdish lands and homes were given to Arabs, many of whom were also forcibly settled there in order to strengthen the regime’s hold on the province.
Iraqi Kurds make up an oppressed nationality that together with another 20 million Kurds spans parts of Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Armenia. The capitalist rulers in Baghdad, Ankara, Tehran, and Damascus fear that any move toward independence or even formal autonomy by Iraqi Kurds would inspire national struggles among their Kurdish populations.
Allawi tries to hold post
Nearly a month after the election, negotiations to form a new government continue to drag out. Iyad Allawi, a wealthy Shiite and prime minister of the U.S.-backed interim government, has announced that he will attempt to hold onto his position in the new government even though the slate he headed came in a distant third in the voting, with just 40 of the 275 seats.
The United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite-led coalition that won a slim majority of the votes, has nominated Ibrahim Jaafari for the post. Jaafari, a leader of the Da’wa party, served as president of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council under the occupation regime headed by U.S. overseer of Iraq Paul Bremer and as a deputy president in the U.S.-backed interim government.
At a news conference following his nomination, Jaafari said that defeating the insurgency would be the first priority of his administration, reported the New York Times. In previous statements, the Times said, Jaafari made it clear that an Iraqi government cannot accomplish that without the continued presence of U.S. troops.
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