BAGHDAD, 3 December 2005 — US and Iraqi forces yesterday launched an operation in Ramadi where militants had staged a symbolic attack a day earlier, as a report by a Washington-based research group suggested the insurgency could get stronger.
Approximately 200 Iraqi Army soldiers and 300 Marines were taking part in Operation Shank, the fifth operation over the last few weeks targeting insurgents in the area around Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
The offensive came a day after residents of Ramadi, the capital of the restive province of Al-Anbar, reported a sudden insurgent presence on the streets, with dozens of fighters roaming unchecked and putting up Al-Qaeda posters.
Images of the operation appeared on several satellite channels even as US military spokesmen insisted that these “spurious” reports were propaganda.
“The idea that there is this massive uprising in insurgents in Ramadi to have retaken control of the town is incorrect,” coalition forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said Thursday.
Lynch said that a series of operations over the last few months has been slowly clearing Al-Anbar of insurgents by moving from the Syrian border town of Al-Qaim, eastward down the Euphrates valley toward Ramadi and Fallujah.
According to Lynch these operations have dealt severe blows against the insurgents, especially the forces of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
“He is struggling because we have taken away his freedom of movement,” Lynch said.
A study released by the Washington Institute of Near East Studies on Thursday, however, suggested that the insurgency remains robust as ever and could grow a good deal stronger.
Researchers said the insurgency has managed to exploit only a fraction of the disgruntled minority Sunni Muslim population with any kind of military training.
“Should the insurgency succeed in exploiting this untapped potential, it could greatly increase its military capabilities,” they wrote. The analysts said the insurgents had scored “important tactical and operational successes” while establishing themselves as a major force in the Sunni Arab community.
The study maintained that foreign jihadists represented only five to seven percent of the insurgency and did not account for the majority of attacks or fatalities.
The tone of the report contrasted with the assertion in the “national strategy for victory in Iraq” unveiled on Wednesday by President George W. Bush, who said US forces were making “significant progress” in containing the insurgency.
Bush in his speech declined to give any kind of timetable for the reduction of US troops, saying it depended on the situation on the ground.
This position was echoed by British Minister of Defense John Reid in a visit yesterday to the southern city of Basra to assess the readiness of Iraqi forces to assume more security responsibilities.
Reid had previously said British troops might begin leaving Iraq by next year, depending on conditions. A number of other countries in the US-led coalition have recently announced they will be cutting their troop levels in Iraq by 2006.
The lack of a concrete timetable was criticized by Syrian ambassador to the United States Imad Mustapha, who said that Bush’s decision flouted the wishes of Iraqis who want US troops out of their country.
“He decided on behalf of the Iraqi people what should happen in Iraq,” Mustapha said.
Meanwhile, four Western Christian activists — including one American, a Briton and two Canadians — who were kidnapped in Baghdad Saturday and a fifth German archaeologist who was abducted separately yesterday remained in captivity.
Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr issued a statement appealing for the release of the German national, a 43-year-old woman who converted to Islam and had been living in Iraq for ten years.
