Insurgency in Iraq Lethal as Ever Since Hussein’s Capture

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-insurgency4feb04,1,1600821.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Nearly two months after the capture of Saddam Hussein, the casualty count among U.S. soldiers and Iraqis in insurgent attacks has accelerated, and much of the nation's Sunni Muslim heartland remains a perilous zone of conflict -- with bouts of violence also striking the Kurdish north and the Shiite south.

The most recent spate of bloodshed includes deadly bombings last weekend in the northern cities of Irbil and Mosul and last month's suicide attack outside the main U.S. compound in Baghdad, blasts that took nearly 100 lives.

Iraqi security forces, civilians and others deemed collaborators are now the major targets, and although attacks on U.S. troops have diminished in number, they remain lethal: 45 soldiers were killed in January, according to unofficial tallies, compared with 40 in December.

As U.S. forces prepare to head home in a massive troop rotation that will leave them vulnerable to attack, front-line commanders interviewed in recent weeks expressed confidence that a measure of order had been restored after Saddam's capture. But they caution that the attacks are likely to continue and possibly intensify as fresh units of soldiers and Marines embark on a second year of U.S. occupation this spring.

"I won't defeat all the enemy in my time. That's very clear," Lt. Col. Brian Drinkwine said in this hostile city to the west of Baghdad, where U.S. troops typically draw fire within an hour if they remain stationary. "I don't have the threat of a tank battalion rising out of the dust and coming after me. But I've got mortars, I've got rockets, and I've got small elements that are trying to chip away at our will."