Marines hope Iraqi troops can secure stability

HADITHA, Iraq – The U.S. Marines are back, squatting in a bullet-pocked building and trudging house to house in temperatures of up to 100 degrees – less than three months after they thought they’d cleaned up this Euphrates River town. And some are being killed.

Why the return visit, so soon after they hoped they were done here?

The answer, in part, is in the building they use as their base, once the local police station.

Insurgents assassinated the police chief and devastated his force more than a month ago, and now there is no police force in Haditha.

Iraqi troops, too, have stayed clear of this Sunni-dominated trouble spot in Anbar province. And until Iraqi forces can handle security in places like Haditha, U.S. troops will have to stay in Iraq to do the job.

A rocket-propelled grenade killed a Marine in Haditha on Thursday, the military announced Friday. Another Marine was killed on the opening day of the operation Wednesday.

For U.S. troops, incessant anti-insurgent operations in the tough towns west of Baghdad have grown disheartening. It’s an even bigger problem for Washington, which has long been talking up the capabilities of the Iraqi troops.

Many Marines currently in Haditha went door-to-door through the city back in March, searching nearly every building, seizing weapons caches. They met light resistance then.

But in April, the bodies of 19 Iraqis were found slumped against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium. And earlier this month, militants launched a well-coordinated attack from the local hospital, killing four U.S. troops in a suicide bombing and ambush.

Since March, U.S. military officials acknowledge, their presence here has been light – similar to a highway patrol operation, said battalion commander Lt. Col. Lionel Urquhart. That allowed insurgents to creep back in.

“It’s frustrating that we can’t keep more of a presence here,” said Marine Maj. Steve Lawson, a company commander in the 25th Marine Regiment’s 3rd Battalion. “You wish you could spend more time in these areas.”

Urquhart said Iraqi troops will soon take over for the Marines.

“It’s going to be very apparent to the enemy that there will be an Iraqi Army presence here in the near future,” he said.

Until then, Marines of Lima Company of 3rd Battalion are hustling in search of insurgents. After raids and patrols, they pile into stuffy rooms in a commandeered Iraqi home that they’ve tried to transform into comfortable living quarters.

House rules are already in effect, with each soldier staking out his turf. Everyone knows not to drink out of claimed water bottles. Spots on the floor are marked with space for machine guns. Off-duty Marines’ trivia games lie undisturbed by the explosions punctuating the night.

Insurgents have warned city residents against cooperating with the Americans. Earlier this month insurgents paid a bold visit to the local radio station and threatened the manager against broadcasting U.S. military messages.

City leaders also keep a distance. They deny insurgents are in the city and, as of Thursday, had not asked for a meeting with the military since operations began, Urquhart said.

“What I need most now is someone who can say this is a good guy and this is a bad guy,” said Marine Col. Stephen W. Davis, who commands all the troops in Regimental Combat Team 2 in the city.