Iraqi forces stick to their guns in battle

Iraqi security forces performed much better in recent fighting in Fallujah and other towns than they did in battles in the spring, U.S. officials say, but some units remain ill-equipped and infiltrated by spies.

That is the initial assessment of military officials and outside analysts in the wake of two weeks of fighting in Iraq in which a Marine-led force secured Fallujah and other U.S. forces put down uprisings in Ramadi, Mosul and Baqouba.

In Fallujah, a force of about 2,000 Iraqis helped kick off the invasion by raiding a hospital on the city’s west side that had served as a terrorist command center. Other units joined Marines and soldiers when they penetrated the city from the north.

The Iraqis moved alongside the Americans, street by street, into the south side, where followers of terror leader Abu Musab Zarqawi made a last stand.

Lt. Gen. John Sattler, who commands the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force outside Fallujah, assigned the Iraqis to “culturally sensitive” targets, such as some of the city’s 77 mosques, which were serving as weapons caches and bomb-making factories.

Only one Iraqi unit is known to have deserted before the attack began. Fifty-one U.S. personnel were killed in the battle, and the Iraqis lost eight soldiers, with more than 40 wounded.

“The Iraqi security forces have fought well,” said Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command.

Gen. Smith said the 2,000 Iraqis who fought to capture Fallujah will serve as the core of the future Iraqi army.

“The way they performed in Fallujah clearly shows that there are a core of fighters in the Iraqi security forces that are prepared and capable of operating independently in war-fighting operations that does give us confidence that our efforts to train the Iraqi security force can be successful,” Gen. Smith said.

Michael O’Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, said there are positive signs for the emerging force, but it is too soon to make a firm judgment.

“It’s already progress that most of the 2,000 devoted to Fallujah appeared to stick it out and take casualties,” Mr. O’Hanlon said. “So the willpower seems improved even if we don’t yet have much information on battlefield performance. The former may in the end be as important as anything else.”

The Iraqi security force’s performance is a crucial component in the overall U.S. plan to turn Iraq into a democracy.

The strategy calls for local police, national guardsmen, border patrolmen and soldiers to gradually take on more security roles, allowing U.S. forces to recede from cities to staging areas, and then eventually leave Iraq.

The Bush administration also is heartened by the Iraqi performances before Fallujah, noting that in recent months, the units also fought well in Samarra and Najaf in October.

Their performance stands in stark contrast to the nationwide uprising in the spring, when Iraqi forces in southern, northern and western Iraq surrendered or retreated rather than fought. U.S. officers said the Iraqis had been rushed into service without proper equipment or preparation.

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