WASHINGTON — The new commander of American forces in Iraq said yesterday that US troops there are facing a "classical guerrilla-type campaign," the first high-level acknowledgement that anti-US attacks in Iraq reflect organized resistance and not just isolated acts of violence.
A grenade attack on an American convoy near Baghdad killed a US soldier and wounded three others. The soldier's death raised the number of combat fatalities in the Iraq war to 146, one shy of the combat death toll of US soldiers in the 1991 Gulf War. Also yesterday, attackers fired a surface-to-air missile at a US C-130 transport plane as it was landing in Baghdad, but missed their target, and a pro-US mayor in a northwestern Iraqi town was gunned down in his car.
General John Abizaid, the new head of the US Central Command, discussed the nature of the Iraqi conflict in his first appearance before Pentagon reporters since starting the job last week. He blamed the guerrilla campaign on mid-level members of deposed leader Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party, as well as "foreign terrorist elements."
He added that US forces should be braced for spending a year on duty in Iraq. "Looking at what I contemplate being the force levels for a while, probably for the next 90 days, we need to probably say to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, 'Here's the maximum extent of your deployment. If we can get you home sooner, we will,' " Abizaid said.
The general's characterization of the conflict as a guerrilla campaign contradicts repeated assertions by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, including a statement he made late last month that it was not "anything like a guerrilla war."
Abizaid said guerrilla warfare was the right term. "It's low-intensity conflict in our doctrinal terms, but it's war however you describe it," Abizaid said.
Abizaid, a Lebanese-American who speaks Arabic, said the growing sophistication in attacks against coalition forces in the country was a reaction to what he described as the successful US effort to stabilize the country.
"You have to understand that there will be an increase in violence as we achieve political success, because the people that have a stake in ensuring the defeat of the coalition realize that time is getting short as the Iraqi face becomes more and more prevalent on the future of Iraq," he said. "And that's precisely what's going on now."
Abizaid said that "at the tactical level, they're better coordinated now. They're less amateurish, and their ability to use improvised explosive devices and combine the use of these explosive devices with some sort of tactical activity ... is more sophisticated."
US commanders believe the resistance is coming from mid-level Ba'athists, former Iraqi intelligence service operatives, and members of the Special Security Organization and Special Republican Guard who have organized in regions around the country in cells receiving financial backing from regional leaders.
Abizaid also said that a small number of foreign terrorists are attacking US troops, including members of Ansar al-Islam, an Al Qaeda-associated terrorist group whose camp in the north US forces destroyed early in the war.
Attacks continued yesterday on US troops in Iraq, including the surface-to-air missile fired at a C-130 transport near Baghdad International Airport. Abizaid said it was the second such failed attack in the last two weeks — and that the first one involved a plane he was on. In that attack, the pilot banked hard to the right and fired off flares to divert the heat-seeking missiles, Abizaid recounted.
The violence yesterday came a day before a now-banned holiday that once marked Hussein's rise to power. Iraqi officials said Mohammed Nayil al-Jurayfi, who had worked with US forces as mayor of Hadithah, 150 miles northwest of Baghdad, was killed when his car was ambushed by attackers using automatic rifles. The Associated Press quoted Hadithah police Captain Khudhier Mohammed as saying one of the mayor's sons also was killed.
An American soldier was killed and three others were injured in a rocket-propelled grenade attack west of Baghdad near the Abu Ghraib prison, US military officials said. In a separate attack, an 8-year-old Iraqi child died when an assailant threw a grenade into a US military vehicle guarding a bank in west Baghdad. The American driver of the vehicle was wounded, as were four Iraqi bystanders. The Arab satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera reported that residents of Hadithah had accused the slain mayor of collaborating with coalition forces.
American forces braced for possible attacks today, the anniversary of the 1968 Ba'athist coup. The holiday was banned this week by the new Governing Council, along with five other holidays created by the Hussein regime.
The Pentagon said that 144 US forces had been killed in combat since the Iraq war began in March. Two more Americans have been killed since that statement was made. Of the fatalities, more than 30 have taken place since President Bush said on May 1 that major combat activity had ended.
The latest death occurred when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the soldier's truck as a 20-vehicle convoy passed along a main highway. The AP reported that Sergeant Diego Baez, who escaped injury, wept over his comrade's death, saying: "We slept next to each other just last night. He was my best friend."
The soldier's name was being withheld until his family was notified. The convoy carried reservists from a supply unit based in Puerto Rico, and was heading to a US base near the Jordanian border.
"We need more protection. We've seen enough. We've stayed in Iraq long enough," said Specialist Carlos McKenzie.
Also yesterday, the military said a Marine died in the southern city of Hillah when he fell from the roof of a building he was guarding.
www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/198/nation/US_facing_guerrilla_war_general_says+.shtmE-mail this article