Iraq insurgents snatch victory from defeat / Baghdad Safe As Houston

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Thu, 23 Jun 2005 20:27:33 -0700

Iraq insurgents snatch victory from defeat

 

 

 

 

Delay: " Baghdad Safe As Houston "

 

 

 

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1513540,00.html>

 

 

 

Iraq insurgents snatch victory from defeat

 

Massive police station assault alarms locals despite retreat

 

Rory Carroll in Baghdad

Friday June 24, 2005

The Guardian

 

Dawn had yet to break and Baghdad's biggest police station, like the

rest of the city, was quiet. About 80 officers dozed inside the

fortress, leaving just a few sentries guarding the walls, razor wire and

concrete barriers.

 

It started with mortars. A series of whooshes from north and south

followed seconds later by explosions inside the perimeter. Figures

emerged from the gloom and knelt in the middle of Hi al-Elam and Qatar

Nada streets, pointing rocket launchers.

 

More figures materialised on rooftops overlooking the station to spray

gunfire and lob grenades. Dozens of gunmen, guerrilla infantry, swarmed

from houses and alleys. It was just after 5.30am and the station was

surrounded.

 

The defenders heard engines rev and guessed what was next: suicide car

bombers. Baghdad's biggest battle in months - and possibly the boldest

yet by insurgents - had begun.

 

They struck on Monday but details of the assault on Baya'a, a vast

police complex in the southern suburbs, emerged only yesterday when

American and Iraqi officers opened the station to reporters. Bullet

holes and debris testified to a synchronised and audacious strike by up

to 100 rebels in what is supposed to be a locked-down capital.

 

The combination of heavy shelling, diversionary feints, infantry thrusts

and suicide vehicles - the " precision-guided " equivalent of tanks - left

parts of the district of Hi al-Elam a smoking ruin. If the objective was

to overrun the station and free its prisoners the offensive failed. The

attackers retreated after two hours, leaving dozens dead and captured.

But if the objective was to send a message of power and determination it

succeeded.

 

Residents said their confidence in the government and security forces

was severely dented. A rash of graffiti has spread across the area: " We

will be back. " One taxi driver, a Shia who loathes the mostly Sunni Arab

resistance, shrugged. " Yes, they will. "

 

Republicans and Democrats, increasingly worried about Iraq, were due

yesterday to quiz Pentagon top brass about a US exit strategy which

hinges on building up Iraqi security forces.

 

On one level the assault at Baya'a was being presented as good news for

Washington. " The enemy spent weeks, maybe months planning this, " said Lt

Col David Funk, a US infantry commander responsible for the area. " They

failed spectacularly. "

 

Not since April's attack on Abu Ghraib had there been such a

concentration of force in the capital and yet the insurgents were

repulsed thanks to the heroism of the beleaguered police officers, he

said. But in Baghdad, the fact the insurgents had launched the attack at

all was more indicative.

 

The sentries, pinned down by fire from the rooftops, did not respond

when they heard the approaching suicide bombers. One vehicle exploded at

the main entrance, killing at least four officers but without breaching

the compound.

 

A nearby Iraqi army base was simultaneously targeted by mortars, gunfire

and a suicide bomber, trapping the soldiers inside. Gunmen attacked the

police station from four sides and came close to overrunning it. From

bases in southern Baghdad US and Iraqi ground troops rushed for Baya'a

only to confront insurgents at Derwesh Square and on the Doura highway

tasked with slowing the relief force. At least three suicide car bombers

had been held back for this purpose.

 

By 6.30am a police machine-gunner on the roof at Baya'a helped turn the

tide, firing volleys which forced attackers to take cover and enabled

his comrades to take better positions. Residents of the mixed Shia and

Sunni neighbourhood made at least 55 phone calls informing the police of

insurgent movements. Some fired on the attackers. An off-duty policeman

was caught by insurgents, bundled into the boot of a car and later found

beheaded.

 

The attackers retreated at around 7.30am. At least 10 were killed and 40

captured.

 

" It was our victory, " said the Iraqi commander, Col Khaldoon. But

residents, picking their way through rubble that had been homes and

shops, disagreed.

 

Last month the government said Operation Lightning, a sweep of the

capital by 40,000 troops, would choke the violence. A spate of

explosions in the past two days killed more than 40 people but it was

the spectacular but less bloody attack at Baya'a that showed the

resistance was still in business.

 

Videos of the assault will almost certainly surface on the internet, the

dramatic images of resistance intended to inspire would-be recruits and

demoralise opponents.

 

Lt Col Funk worried about similarities to the Tet offensive, a 1968 push

by North Vietnamese forces which failed militarily but whose scale and

surprise gave the impression that the US and its allies were failing.

" The media got Tet wrong and they're getting Iraq wrong. We are winning

but people won't know that if all they are hearing about is death and

violence. "

 

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