Three weeks ago today, the early morning calm at a small U.S. Army outpost in the village of Quarghouli hard by the Euphrates River southwest of Baghdad was shattered by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.
A dozen or so insurgents, led by Al Qaeda regulars, overwhelmed the seven soldiers from the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division, breaching the concertina wire ringing their two Humvees and setting the vehicles afire.
The area around the attack is considered a birthplace of Western civilization and not far away are the ruins of the ancient Babylonian city of Sippar. But today the area is anything but civilized and is known as the Triangle of Death.
That is because from the outset of the Iraq war, the American presence has been deeply resented by the predominant Sunni tribes, although not as much as the Shiite-run central government in Baghdad. The hatred of occupiers and Shiites has resulted in a willingness to allow insurgent groups, including Al Qaeda, to roam freely in the triangle, creating havoc for the mere 3,000 U.S. soldiers assigned to cover an area roughly the size of Cape Cod.
The Iraqi Army is supposed to be playing a greater role in securing the triangle, primarily keeping insurgents from feeding bombs and weapons into Baghdad, but that has not happened. As it is, an Iraqi detachment near the Quarghouli outpost probably saw and heard the attack, but chose not to get involved.
The Americans fought back, but didn’t stand a chance. Their crude outpost – a result of a risky but necessary new counterinsurgency tactic promoted by General David Petraeus that emphasizes pushing soldiers out of safe bases into local communities – was too far from reinforcements that wouldn’t hesitate to get involved.
The attackers, as they have over and over again since the outset of the insurgency, had adapted to a change in American tactics with deadly efficiency.
Please click here to read more at Kiko’s House.