WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2003 – Enemy attacks against the coalition in and
around Baghdad have dropped by 70 percent since Operation Iron Hammer began
Nov. 12, the commander of the 1st Armored Division said today. Army Brig. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey told reporters in Baghdad and the Pentagon press corps here by video teleconference that information gathered over several weeks # mainly from Iraqi citizens # and pattern analysis of enemy actions have combined to make Iron Hammer “an intelligence-based, precise combat operation.”
The general said Iron Hammer is a joint operation involving the Army, the
Air Force and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and police. “Fundamentally, we
want to communicate to the enemy the high cost of continuing to resist, as
well as to assure the good citizens of Baghdad of our resolve,” Dempsey
said. The operation involves cyclical processes that comprise three phases,
he said.
Dempsey explained that gathering and fighting for intelligence is the first
phase. Next comes “force-oriented reconnaissance,” he said, followed by
attacks. He noted the distinction between reconnaissance in general and the
force-oriented reconnaissance that makes up the second phase of Iron Hammer
operations.
“I make that distinction because reconnaissance can be aimed at terrain and
other things as well,” he said. “But in this case, we’re looking for those
individuals who are fighting us. And then we will attack again, based on
that intelligence, as well as exploiting the intelligence that we’ve gained
in the earlier phases.
“Each phase is event-driven, not time-driven,” the general continued. “And
so we’ll base our decision on when to move from phase to phase based on our
determination that we’ve got what we want out of that phase.”
Of Baghdad’s 88 neighborhoods, the general said, six to eight are “less
secure than we want them to be.” Ethnic, religious, tribal and economic
differences among those neighborhoods prevent the use of a single set of
steps in approaching the security problems from neighborhood to
neighborhood, he added.
“Each neighborhood requires a degree of determination and a degree of
patience and a degree of precision in order to make sure that the outcome is
what we want it to be, which is a safe and secure environment,” Dempsey
said.
One operation challenges, he said, is trying to get at enemies who attack
coalition forces with mortars and rockets. He called them unsophisticated
“hit- and-run attackers” who often operate from trucks that allow rapid
escape, or set up their rockets on a timer, laid up against the side of a
berm or on a roof’s rain gutter, so the attackers are out of the area when
their attack actually takes place.
Still, with more and more human intelligence # mainly from Iraqis # Iron
Hammer is succeeding in identifying and defeating the cells of resistance
responsible for most of the attacks against coalition and Iraqi targets,
Dempsey said.
He showed reporters a videotape taken from an Army AH-64 Apache helicopter.
The crew witnessed a rocket attack and tracked the truck from which it was
launched, watching as it stopped at several places and waiting until it was
in a part of the city where attacking it would not put the citizens of
Baghdad at risk, Dempsey said. At that point, when the truck was at the
attackers’ safe house where the attackers met some comrades, the Apache
engaged it, killing two insurgents and wounding three others. Eight were
captured.
Dempsey said that while the specific tactics of the anti-coalition attackers
do not seem to be organized or directed by any central command, evidence
does indicate some sort of coordinated supply and financial support.
Dempsey emphasized that nothing in Operation Iron Hammer is done as a “show
of force”; every target is chosen for a reason, he said. As an example, he
cited the destruction of an abandoned dye factory that was attacked twice
from the air, even though it was widely known as a useless building. Though
it was nothing more than a frame, Dempsey said it had been used “on
countless occasions” as a sanctuary for attacks against the coalition, and
he explained why the building was attacked twice.
“Well, if you shot a target like that once # the enemy’s a pretty cagey
fellow. He probably says, ‘Well, they’re done for tonight, aren’t they?’ And
so you fly away. He comes over. Next thing you know, you’re getting shot at
again from the same building,” Dempsey said. “We went back and shot it
again. What I want to make sure the enemy knows is that there is no
sanctuary in Baghdad.”
Dempsey said success in bringing safety and security to all of Baghdad
requires that the city’s citizens have trust and confidence in the
coalition’s sincerity. He noted closure during Iron Hammer of $1.4 million
in programs to restore infrastructure to the University of Baghdad, and a
meeting the coalition organized that brought together 500 Iraqi farmers to
form a cooperative group that will give them a voice when the new Iraqi
government takes over.
“If I can get the trust and confidence of the people of Baghdad that I am
here for the reason they say I’m here – to provide a safe and secure
environment so they can establish governance and move into the future – then
God bless us all,” Dempsey said. “And that’s what I’m looking for.”