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Last Updated: Jul 13, 2008 - 7:22:02 AM |
Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, called
the weapon "the greatest threat right now that we face," and he likened
the shadowy group behind it to the American military's elite Delta
Force.
The weapon is particularly worrying because it is designed to cause
catastrophic damage and cannot be stopped once it has been launched,
Hammond, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said in an interview
in his office at this U.S. military headquarters compound just west of
the capital.
U.S. forces detained a man on Thursday who Hammond said could provide
valuable insights into the group behind the bombmaking. "We think we
have defined the network," he said. He would not elaborate, although
other American officers said in interviews that the group is Shiite and
may have links to Iran.
"We think we might have picked up a guy that could lead us - could be a
big lead in this," Hammond said.
It's not clear whether this small group is related to efforts by
anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to revitalize his Mahdi
Army, which had held sway in the Sadr City section of Baghdad until
U.S. and Iraqi forces wrested control after seven weeks of fighting
that ended in May.
Arguing against a link to such an al-Sadr initiative is the fact that
the group that Hammond described has been operating since at least late
2007, although it has become more active in recent months.
The 107 mm rockets that are used in the improvised bombs - which some
call an airborne version of the roadside bombs that through the course
of the war have been the leading killer of U.S. troops - are
manufactured in Iran, officials said. But some officers cautioned
against assuming Iran is directly involved.
The weapons are launched from small trucks and are fired in multiples
of four to nine rockets at a time. The detonation is sometimes
triggered by a signal from a cell phone, other times by a washing
machine timer.
Brig. Gen. Will Grimsley, deputy commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad,
said in a separate AP interview on Thursday that for lack of a better
term he refers to the group as "the evil militia." He said it is small
and exhibits a high degree of technical skill in assembling the weapons
and executing attacks.
The military calls the weapon an "improvised rocket-assisted mortar,"
or IRAM.
Grimsley on Thursday went to the Sadr City section of eastern Baghdad
to visit a joint U.S.-Iraqi military outpost that suffered an IRAM
attack on April 28. The building was heavily damaged, and 15 U.S.
soldiers were wounded, none seriously enough to prevent their return to
duty, said Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a military spokesman.
The weapon innovation has gained relatively little public attention
because it has yet to kill in large numbers.
So far, in 11 attacks, three U.S. soldiers have been killed, Stover
said. The three were killed April 28 - the same day as the Sadr City
assault - in an attack on a larger U.S. base in eastern Baghdad.
At the Sadr City base, Grimsley consulted with Lt. Col. Brian Eifler,
commander of 1st Battalion, 6th Armor, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored
Division, inside a newly constructed combat outpost a stone's throw
from the damaged one. Eifler said he is focused heavily on the IRAM
threat and how to minimize it.
Eifler estimated that a U.S. soldier who might be in position to
witness the approach of a potential IRAM-bearing vehicle would have
less then two seconds to decide whether the person emerging from it has
just set it for firing or is simply an innocent driver getting out to
change a tire.
"That's a call our young soldiers have to make when potentially 200
lives are at stake," Eifler said.
Hammond said the perpetrators are so skilled that he has likened their
organization to the U.S. military's secretive and elite Delta Force. He
said they have demonstrated an unusual degree of military skill and
cunning.
"They don't leave a forensic trail, and that just means we're going to
have to work a little bit longer" to eliminate them, he said. "Of
everything we've had to deal with here, this is a tough one. They're
sort of the Delta Force of this enemy we face out there. They are very
good" at covering their tracks, picking out targets and preserving
secrecy about their membership and movements.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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