Baqubah, Iraq – The U.S. commander of a new offensive north of Baghdad, reclaiming insurgent territory day by day, said Sunday that his Iraqi partners may be too weak to hold onto the gains.
The Iraqis don’t even have enough ammunition, said Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek: “They’re not quite up to the job yet.”
His counterpart south of Baghdad seemed to agree, saying U.S. troops are too few to garrison areas rid of insurgents.
“It can’t be coalition (U.S.) forces. We have what we have. There’s got to be more Iraqi security forces,” said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch.
The two commanders spoke after a deadly day for the U.S. military in Iraq. At least 12 soldiers were killed Saturday from roadside bombings and other causes, leaving at least 31 dead for the week.
In the U.S. offensive dubbed Operation Arrowhead Ripper, some 10,000 American troops were in their sixth day of combat to drive Sunni al-Qaeda militants from their stronghold in Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Between 60 and 100 suspected al-Qaeda fighters and one U.S. soldier have been killed in the fighting in western Baqubah, said Bednarek, the 25th Infantry Division’s deputy commander for operations. About 60 insurgents were detained, he said.
He estimated between 50 and 100 insurgents were inside a cordon in the city. He said U.S. forces control about 60 percent of the city’s west side, but “the challenge now is, how do you hold onto the terrain you’ve cleared? You have to do that shoulder- to-shoulder with Iraqi security forces. And they’re not quite up to the job yet.”
Also Sunday, a roadside bomb in Samarra, north of Baghdad, killed four Interior Ministry special-forces personnel in a utility vehicle, police reported. Farther north, Ninevah provincial police said gunmen in a speeding car killed Ahmed Zeinel, a Shiite Kurdish member of the provincial council, as he left his house in Mosul on Sunday.
