Focus shifts, missions proceed for U.S. forces
HAWIJA, Iraq – Even as President Barack Obama was announcing the end of combat in Iraq, American soldiers were sealing off a northern village early Wednesday as their Iraqi partners raided houses and arrested dozens of suspected insurgents.
While the Obama administration has dramatically reduced the number of troops and rebranded the mission, the operation in Hawija was a reminder that U.S. forces are still engaged in hunting down and killing al-Qaida militants – and could still have to defend themselves against attacks.
That reality was front and center at a change-of-command ceremony in one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces outside Baghdad that the American military now uses as its headquarters. Officials warned of a tough road ahead as the U.S. moves into the final phase of the 71/2-year-old war.
Of paramount concern is Iraqi leaders’ continued bickering, six months after parliamentary elections, over forming a new government – a political impasse that could further endanger stability and fuel a diminished but still dangerous insurgency.
“Iraq still faces a hostile enemy who is determined to hinder progress,” Gen. Lloyd Austin, the newly installed commander of the just under 50,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq, told the swelling crowd that was clad in military fatigues and civilian suits. “Make no mistake, our military forces here and those of the Iraqi nation remain committed to ensuring that our friends in Iraq succeed.”
Vice President Joe Biden presided over the gathering at al-Faw palace, Saddam’s gaudy former hunting lodge.
The remaining U.S. forces in Iraq would be “as combat ready, if need be, as any in our military,” Biden said, flanked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen for the 75-minute ceremony, which also changed the U.S. mission’s name from “Operation Iraqi Freedom” to “Operation New Dawn.”
Three years ago, about 170,000 U.S. troops were in Iraq. Of those who remain, fewer than 10 percent – or 4,500 – are special forces who will regularly go on raids and capture terrorists, albeit alongside Iraqi troops.
Obama ordered the end of combat missions by Aug. 31 in a step toward a full withdrawal of American forces by the end of next year that was mandated in a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement.
But Iraqi forces are heavily dependent on U.S. firepower, along with helicopters, spy data and other key tools for combating terrorists that they won’t be able to supply on their own for years to come.
“Every soldier I have knows that fighting is not over because there are groups here that still want to hurt us,” Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq’s volatile north, told the Associated Press recently. “But clearly combat operations is not in our mission statement.”
In Hawija, once a hub for Sunni militants and Saddam’s disaffected allies located 150 miles north of Baghdad, roughly 80 U.S. soldiers teamed up with more than 1,000 Iraqis to arrest about 60 terror suspects in the early morning raid Wednesday.
From checkpoints and command centers to helicopters hovering overhead, the Americans were on hand at the request of Iraqi police. But it was the Iraqis who went into houses and arrested suspected insurgents – including two considered high-value targets – while the U.S. watched the operation from afar.