NASSIRIYAH, Iraq, 13 April 2003 — Around 300 fighters, originally Iraqi exiles recruited and trained by the United States, are in control of the southern Iraqi town of Shatra, a US military source said yesterday. A Reuters photographer saw a convoy of trucks carrying Free Iraqi Forces (FIF) pass through the town of Nassiriyah, 375 km southeast of Baghdad, armed with AK-47 rifles and wearing camouflage fatigues bearing FIF initials on their arms.
The trucks, bound for Shatra some 50 km north of Nassiriyah, were escorted by US Humvee military vehicles. “Free Iraqi Forces are now in control of Shatra,” an unnamed military source told Reuters correspondent Adrian Croft. The FIF was recruited from among Iraqi exiles in the United States and Western Europe under the 1998 US Iraqi Liberation Act and underwent a monthlong training by the US army at a military air base in Taszar, Hungary.
It was unclear whether the Shatra group was drawn from a pool of some 700 fighters who arrived in Nassiriyah with Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, under US military escort last Sunday. The US military airlift was believed to have given Chalabi, a controversial figure at the center of disputes within the US administration, a head start over other exile groups seeking a role in the next Iraqi government.
The Pentagon insists it does not intend to anoint Chalabi as the new leader of Iraq. The United States is arranging a meeting of Iraqi exiles on Tuesday in Nassiriyah to pave the way for an interim Iraqi authority.
US Marines, meanwhile, are working with local Iraqis to restore public services in Nassiriyah. But the US Marine officer overseeing the drive to repair the battered infrastructure of the city — the scene of fierce fighting at the start of the war now in its 24th day — said it could still take weeks to get the power working again.
“It’s been difficult, it’s taken a lot of work, but the fact that the locals are so involved with this and have really taken responsibility for it, has really made a difference,” said Lt. Col. Erik Grabowsky, detachment commander for the 4th Civil Affairs Group attached to US Marines in the region.
“I’m hoping that within 30 days we are going to have the power on and, to me, that’s a tremendous success. By then, we’ll have water, we’ll have the health care system generally functioning,” he told Reuters in an interview.
The city of over a quarter of a million people was one of the first to be occupied by US forces after bloody battles with Iraqi militia fighters early in the war and is a testing ground for how the United States can restore order and services.
Violence and looting have swept Iraq as President Saddam Hussein’s rule crumbled this week after 24 years of iron rule. Aid officials say badly needed humanitarian aid could be delayed unless US-led forces step in to prevent a slide to anarchy.
Although Nassiriyah did see some looting in the immediate aftermath of the fighting, a semblance of normality has returned to the city 375 km south of Baghdad. More people can be seen walking the streets, there is more traffic about and children play soccer on waste ground.
US officials will hold the first of a series of regional meetings of Iraqi opposition leaders in Nassiriyah on Tuesday to discuss how to run postwar Iraq and create an interim authority.
Grabowsky said two local hospitals were operating in the city, garbage collection had started in one area and he had seen a petrol filling station that was open. The city’s telephone system was working, as was the fire department, he said.
Many local government buildings were destroyed or damaged in the fighting and many buildings and supplies were looted. But Grabowsky said some facilities, including the local oil refinery and the irrigation department, had been guarded throughout by “local dedicated professionals”.
He said US forces were looking at restoring a local police department, with Iraqi officers possibly initially securing certain installations and eventually patrolling or co-manning control posts with Marines.
“People need to have that additional sense of security. They do see the Marines here. But it’s not like having your local police department, somebody standing on your corner (who) speaks the local language,” he said. Grabowsky said many municipal employees had come back to work even though they were not being paid at the moment.
“The real problem here ... is about the electricity, the water and sanitation. We are in desperate need of all these things,” said one local who declined to be named. Grabowsky said the local power plant needed a jump-start of several thousand volts for electricity to get going again, but the high power lines from the city of Basra were still down. Local crews would start repairs on them in the next few days.
