[Marxism] "It is over in Samarra, " according to VERY unreliable sources

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, "it is over in Samarra," the Iraqi government claims.  According
to the US estimate, they killed 125 insurgents (or somebody) in the
taking "control" of the city.  Army Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste,
commander of the 1st Infantry Division, which sent 3,000 soldiers into
the city Thursday night, said: "This is great news for the people of
Samarra, 200,000 people who have been held captive, hostage if you will,
by just a couple of hundred thugs." If only a couple of hundred thugs
were the problem in the city, the 125 "insurgents" killed should mean
that the problem is basically wrapped up. And they did it, they say,
with only one US casualty.

If this is the model, Iraq should be insurgent-free within weeks --
maybe even by election day. A series of victories like this should sew
up Iraq for US imperialism -- and probably the US election for the
incumbent and the Iraqi election for Washington's hand-picked incumbent.

But note the following:

"But as tank and machine-gun fire continued after dusk, residents said
many insurgents had simply scattered.

"One resident with ties to the resistance said fighters learned early in
the battle not to gather in groups, which had made inviting targets for
U.S. combat aircraft circling over the city, about 65 miles north of
Baghdad.

"'Concerning the movement of the mujaheddin, they take the small streets
to attack. They don't move like before. They used to move in groups, but
now they don't,' the resident said by satellite telephone, speaking on
condition that he be identified only as Hamad."

There is no doubt that the US military power to "control" any city or
sector in Iraq in this way.  But it is most likely that the battle for
Samarra has begun, not ended, and that the relationship of political,
social, and military forces has not shifted decisively in favor of
control of Iraq by US imperialism.
Fred Feldman






washingtonpost.com
U.S., Iraqi Forces Control Samarra
Sporadic Fighting Continues After Major Offensive North of Baghdad
By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 3, 2004; Page A30


BAGHDAD, Oct. 2 -- U.S. and Iraqi forces took control of the central
Iraqi city of Samarra on Saturday but engaged in sporadic clashes with
insurgents who had dispersed into the narrowest of its closely packed
streets to continue fighting in small bands.

Iraqi officials used the apparent victory as an opportunity to warn
resistance fighters who control or frequently destabilize other cities
in central and northern Iraq and harass U.S. and Iraqi patrols on the
roads between them.

"This is the first step in operations to take back lawless areas,"
Interior Minister Falah Naqib, a native of Samarra, told reporters at
city hall, which was recaptured by U.S. and Iraqi troops, news services
reported. "The Iraqi government is moving from a defense position to an
offensive position to regain control over all of Iraq.

"We cleaned up the city from all the bad guys and terrorists," Naqib
said.

"It is over in Samarra," Hazim Shalan, the Iraqi defense minister,
announced on al-Arabiya, a pan-Arab satellite news network.

U.S. commanders estimated that 125 insurgents had been killed in the
fighting, and hospitals in the area reported receiving more than 80
bodies, including an unknown number of civilians.

But as tank and machine-gun fire continued after dusk, residents said
many insurgents had simply scattered.

One resident with ties to the resistance said fighters learned early in
the battle not to gather in groups, which had made inviting targets for
U.S. combat aircraft circling over the city, about 65 miles north of
Baghdad.

"Concerning the movement of the mujaheddin, they take the small streets
to attack. They don't move like before. They used to move in groups, but
now they don't," the resident said by satellite telephone, speaking on
condition that he be identified only as Hamad.

"All the streets are empty. It is difficult for the people to take the
killed and wounded to the hospitals and cemeteries," he said, adding
that many people are being buried in yards.

Army Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste, commander of the 1st Infantry
Division, which sent 3,000 soldiers into the city Thursday night, said:
"This is great news for the people of Samarra, 200,000 people who have
been held captive, hostage if you will, by just a couple of hundred
thugs."

The 1st Infantry Division, which lost one soldier in two days of battle,
was followed into the city by 2,000 Iraqi forces, most of them freshly
trained guardsmen, commandos and police. U.S. and Iraqi officials said
real success would come only if the Iraqis managed to hold the peace
when the armored U.S. forces withdraw. Samarra fell into insurgent hands
this summer when its police force collapsed.

Batiste, who spoke to a CNN crew accompanying his division, praised the
Iraqi forces. Specially trained Iraqi units captured two religious sites
in the city without suffering any casualties.

"The Iraqi security forces really handled themselves well," Batiste
said. "They're getting better and better trained, better and better
equipped. It ought to give us a lot of confidence."

Iraqi officials have said that, in order to allow orderly elections to
take place across Iraq in January, the offensive for Samarra would be
repeated in at least three other urban battlegrounds held by insurgents.
Each saw violence this weekend.

In Ramadi, capital of the vast Anbar province 60 miles west of Baghdad,
an explosion ripped through a newly renovated building that "was to be a
symbolic centerpiece" of the city's renewal, a U.S. military statement
said. A Marine patrol shot and killed a man who apparently set off the
charge in the Ramadi Agricultural Center on Friday.

In Fallujah, 35 miles west of the capital, U.S. combat aircraft on
Saturday bombed a building that officials said housed foreign fighters
and local insurgents who have controlled the city since April.
Intelligence reports said 10 to 15 men were conducting military training
in the building, which is on the outskirts of the city, the U.S.
military said.

The strike killed five foreign fighters -- four Saudis and a Syrian --
residents said. The concussion also brought down the roof of a house
next door, killing four women and a teenage boy, residents said.

Residents also said an airstrike late Friday killed six members of a
family and two overnight guests. Neighbors said the head of the
household, Hamad Hdaib Mohammedi, was well known for his opposition to
the insurgents. Television footage showed the dust-covered body of a
small girl being pulled from the rubble of Mohammedi's home.

Fifteen minutes after the strike, U.S. aircraft dropped leaflets calling
on residents to eject foreign fighters and join the political process.
The fliers offered $65 million in development projects but warned that
the money would go to other cities if the population did not act soon.

In Sadr City, also a rebel stronghold, clashes between 1st Cavalry
Division patrols and the Mahdi Army militia of Moqtada Sadr, a
rebellious Shiite cleric, continued Saturday. U.S. forces ventured into
most areas of the Baghdad slum only inside tanks or other heavily
armored vehicles. The military said two soldiers were wounded when a
roadside bomb detonated beside their armored personnel carrier.

Elsewhere, a Marine was wounded Saturday morning when a suicide bomber
detonated explosives beside a U.S. convoy east of Fallujah. Two soldiers
in an Army convoy outside the northern city of Mosul were wounded in a
similar attack, the military said.

In Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was reported killed late Friday by small arms
fire, bringing the number of death of American personnel in Iraq to
1,060.

A video posted on an Internet site showed the beheading of an Iraqi man
and displayed a pass granting him access to a U.S. base. The extremist
Ansar al-Sunna Army said in a statement that the man, Barie Nafie Dawoud
Ibrahim, was killed for being "one of the biggest contractors" working
with the Americans.

The al-Jazeera satellite television network broadcast footage of 10
hostages seized several days ago by another group, the Islamic Army in
Iraq. The group has demanded that Indonesia release Abubakar Baasyir, a
radical Muslim cleric facing trial on charges of being the spiritual
head of Jemaah Islamiah, a regional group operating in Southeast Asia
that is linked to al Qaeda. Two of the hostages are Indonesian.

Baasyir rejected the demand in a recording smuggled out of prison in
Indonesia to the Associated Press.

"I cannot justify this kidnapping," he said. "I demand that they be
freed as Islam does not condone taking hostages of Muslim sisters and
brothers. If the captors are Muslim, they truly do not understand
Islam."

Special correspondent Bassam Sebti contributed to this report.



C 2004 The Washington Post Company


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism