The surge of attacks against US troops in Iraq are "militarily insignificant" and an indication of the increasing desperation of Baathists targeted in scores of raids, a top US commander said Wednesday.
Major General Ray Odierno, the commander of the US Army's 4th Infantry Division, acknowledged his forces were encountering military activity throughout a zone north of Baghdad where support for the regime was strongest.
"But I really qualify it is as militarily insignificant. They are very small. They are very random. They are very ineffective," he said in a videoconference from Iraq.
The attacks appear to be coming from Baathists and former members of the Iraqi security services, Islamic “militant” groups and poor Iraqis who were being paid a bounty to kill American troops, Odierno was cited by AFP as saying.
However, rather than signaling growing popular opposition, Odierno said the attacks were a reaction to pressure applied by US raids throughout the region.
"So I think they're desperate. I think they're becoming less and less organized," he said.
The Baathists lacked the leaders, weapons and organization to mount an effective challenge to US forces, he said.
"This is not guerrilla warfare. It is not close to guerrilla warfare, because it's not coordinated, it's not organized and it's not led," he said.
US forces have arrested hundreds of suspects in 56 raids in recent days, many of them mid-level senior Baathists and former members of the Iraqi intelligence and special Republican Guards, he said.
"The more money we seize, the more individuals we take into custody, we continue to really, I think, have an impact on the medium-to-senior-level of the individuals that remain," Odierno said.
"So, I think we are, in fact, having a significant impact on them. And I think that's causing them then to come out and be a little bit more desperate in their attacks on US forces," he said. (Albawaba.com)
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