Firefight, Suicide Bombing Leave One Marine Dead, 26 Wounded

[thedrifter]

Firefight, Suicide Bombing Leave One Marine Dead, 26 Wounded

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 11, 2003; Page A29


MARINE COMBAT HEADQUARTERS, Iraq, April 10 -- The tip came in overnight, Marine officers recalled: Former president Saddam Hussein and his younger son, Qusay, were alive and hiding out in a house near the center of Baghdad.

Under cover of predawn darkness, a detachment raced to the scene, only to be greeted by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades from a nearby mosque. The Marines returned fire and found themselves in an hours-long shootout, one of their most intense of the three-week war.

In the end, one Marine lay dead and 22 others were injured, officers reported to headquarters here, while dozens of bodies of non-Iraqi Arab combatants went down around the house of worship. Neither Hussein nor Qusay was found, but just before the Marines arrived, they said, four to eight vehicles were seen by a Predator reconnaissance drone speeding off.

The battle at the Imam Mosque in northern Baghdad, along with a suicide bombing that wounded four Marines at a checkpoint in the city later in the day, underlined the reality that the war in Iraq has not ended, even in the capital, simply because the government has fallen. U.S. commanders believe they could be occupied for days or weeks with the search for Hussein and his top lieutenants, the liquidation of paramilitary and foreign fighters and the capture northern Iraq's oil fields.

"If you'd asked me yesterday, I'd have said it was all but over," said Maj. David Greenlees, a staff officer at Marine headquarters east of Baghdad. But today it became clearer that it was not. "You rip out a statue, it doesn't mean all the bad guys are gone or changed their tune."

That recognition arrived like a hangover after a heady day in which U.S. tanks powered into downtown Baghdad to stay, greeted by cheering crowds hailing the end of Hussein's repressive three-decade rule.

As troops from the 5th Marine Regiment responded to the tip on Hussein about 3 a.m., they were attacked from the mosque by mainly foreign guerrillas who refused to give up in the face of superior firepower. "These guys fought till the end," said Lt. Col. David Pere, senior watch commander at Marine headquarters. "It was somebody important [in there], no doubt about it."

In the end, officers said, about 200 men attacked the Marines and most were killed. About eight were taken prisoner and were being interrogated; Marine officers said they appeared to be Syrian or Jordanian.

By the end of the day, another attack on the Marines had underlined the continuing danger in Baghdad. An Iraqi man strapped with explosives walked up to a checkpoint and detonated himself in central Baghdad not far from Firdaus Square, where the statue of Hussein was torn down Wednesday. Four Marines were reported injured.

Military intelligence has warned that such suicide attacks could increase even though Hussein's government has collapsed, particularly with the presence of Arab fighters who might not be able to blend back into Iraqi society.

"It is clearly not over," Pere said. "There's still a lot of fight left."

Beyond the capital, U.S. commanders are trying to figure out how to secure the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, the sites of oil fields, without inflaming Kurdish and Turkish enmities. A plan to begin moving U.S. forces north toward those cities was overtaken by the easy seizure today of Kirkuk by Kurds and reports that negotiations are under way for the surrender of Iraqi forces in Mosul.

By the end of the day, the question became how to talk the Kurds out of Kirkuk and send in replacement U.S. forces to placate Turkey, which fears Kurdish control of the city could lead to creation of an independent Kurdish state and an eventual separatist movement among its own Kurdish population.

Tikrit, Hussein's hometown, loomed as a potentially more treacherous problem. Located about 90 miles north of Baghdad, it might be used by his closest followers to mount a last stand, according to U.S. officers. Strategists are cobbling together a plan to dispatch troops there.

Even as the U.S. forces contemplate how to stretch their already thin supply lines north, they must keep a close eye on their rear to prevent losing territory. In Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, military intelligence has detected as many as 2,000 Iraqi and guerrilla volunteers from other Arab countries regrouping. Farther east, officers said, they are becoming increasingly concerned about Iranian-backed Shiite groups along the Highway 7 corridor, where there are fewer U.S. forces.

"We're starting to see these elements . . . moving into Iraq trying to fill the power vacuum," said Lt. Col. George Smith, a staff officer at Marine headquarters. "They're trying to exert their influence. They're doing things like commandeering assets, vehicles, anything of monetary value. In some cases they're taking them back to Iran."

Strategists are also trying to prepare for the phase that will follow hostilities, hoping to install an administration that can restore power, water and other basic services and deal with humanitarian needs to demonstrate that the invasion of Iraq was meant to help the Iraqi people. Under current plans the Army will be put in charge of the northern half of the country, the Marines will oversee the south, and the land forces command, headed by Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, will supervise Baghdad. The civilian humanitarian office put together by retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner will report to McKiernan, who likely will soon move his headquarters from Kuwait to Baghdad .

The Marines are prepared to stay for at least 90 days after hostilities end before being replaced by Army or international forces. During that time, under the plans now being finalized, they will work to secure their sector so international organizations and nongovernmental groups can arrive. It is a task that sits uncomfortably on the Marines' shoulders.

"We're the nation's assault troops," said Smith, the staff officer, who is deeply involved in planning for the postwar phase. "We kick the door down. But we're not designed, nor do I think the nation wants us to be, a long-term presence force." Having said that, he added, "we feel we have the flexibility . . . to deal with these new conditions."

Most important will be imposing order on the south, where bands of paramilitary fighters have ambushed and sniped at U.S. troops at every opportunity. Such irregulars pose a particular danger to humanitarian groups and convoys rolling across Iraqi highways. "We see that as the number one threat we're going to have to deal with in post-hostilities," Smith said.


? 2003 The Washington Post Company


Sempers,

Roger