Hadithah, Iraq – U.S. Marines leading an offensive in western Iraq patrolled the gravel and dirt streets of this riverside city Wednesday, catching the scent of Ramadan holiday meals wafting from homes and eyeing fliers taped to lampposts offering rewards to anyone who kills a U.S. serviceman.
U.S. forces met little resistance when they stormed into Hadithah late Monday or in the 48 hours afterward as they fanned out house to house.
But they found dozens of roadside bombs and mines buried under major streets – including one that killed three soldiers in nearby Haqlaniyah, also targeted in the offensive to retake three Euphrates River towns from al-Qaeda insurgents.
American commanders say they aim to push out the militants and base an unspecified number of U.S. and Iraqi troops inside the towns. Clamping off the flow of insurgents from this Sunni Arab-dominated area and nearby Syria is critical to stabilizing Baghdad and other locations farther east, they say.
The task is a tall one for thinly stretched U.S. forces and new Iraqi soldiers who have been largely based outside insurgency-plagued areas.
Together, Hadithah and surrounding towns form a large population center – with more than 100,000 residents – where militants have been operating almost freely after driving out Iraqi security forces with a series of bloody attacks this year.
The fliers taped up in Hadithah’s streets offer 1.5 million Iraqi dinars – about $1,000 – to anyone who kills a U.S. soldier or Marine. Other signs urged residents to cut off the feet and hands of anyone assisting U.S. forces.
Marines said some residents asked if they were going to stay in the city, while other Iraqis said they feared the U.S. presence would increase attacks as the fight now moves downtown.
“If somebody opens his mouth, he loses his head,” said Mustafa, a Hadithah resident in his early 20s who would give only his first name for fear of insurgent reprisals. “It’s affecting their lives without a police force or a hospital – people do not feel safe.”
