H
Harry Hope
Guest
From TIME Magazine, 10/8/07:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1669249,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD
U.S. military officers in Iraq often wonder about the possible
presence of Iranian operatives in cities south of Baghdad like Karbala
and Najaf, two key strongholds for Shi'ite militias thought to have
links to Tehran.
Many soldiers believe those two cities, home to more than 1.5 million
people altogether, are where Shi'ite militants gather, train and arm
themselves with help from Iran for attacks against U.S. forces farther
north.
Some intelligence even suggests that Iran's elite military force, the
Revolutionary Guard, has opened training camps in the area for Iraqi
guerrillas.
But getting a clear picture of the happenings there and in other
cities in that region is hard for one simple reason:
U.S. troops don't go there anymore.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week announced his plan to
reduce the British force around the southern city of Basra from 5,000
to 2,500 by next spring.
Drawing less attention, however, is the extent to which American
forces have quietly withdrawn from the rest of southern Iraq.
By so doing, the U.S. is ceding huge swaths of territory to shaky
provincial governments that have to face increasingly powerful Shi'ite
militias very much alone.
Small contingents of U.S. soldiers enter Karbala and Najaf only for
brief visits with local officials these days, and much of the rest of
southern Iraq has no American troops at all.
Focused on saving Baghdad, U.S. forces keep up a regular presence with
patrols and combat outposts chiefly around the southern reaches of the
capital.
Meanwhile, the drawdown of British forces in Basra
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1669249,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD
U.S. military officers in Iraq often wonder about the possible
presence of Iranian operatives in cities south of Baghdad like Karbala
and Najaf, two key strongholds for Shi'ite militias thought to have
links to Tehran.
Many soldiers believe those two cities, home to more than 1.5 million
people altogether, are where Shi'ite militants gather, train and arm
themselves with help from Iran for attacks against U.S. forces farther
north.
Some intelligence even suggests that Iran's elite military force, the
Revolutionary Guard, has opened training camps in the area for Iraqi
guerrillas.
But getting a clear picture of the happenings there and in other
cities in that region is hard for one simple reason:
U.S. troops don't go there anymore.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week announced his plan to
reduce the British force around the southern city of Basra from 5,000
to 2,500 by next spring.
Drawing less attention, however, is the extent to which American
forces have quietly withdrawn from the rest of southern Iraq.
By so doing, the U.S. is ceding huge swaths of territory to shaky
provincial governments that have to face increasingly powerful Shi'ite
militias very much alone.
Small contingents of U.S. soldiers enter Karbala and Najaf only for
brief visits with local officials these days, and much of the rest of
southern Iraq has no American troops at all.
Focused on saving Baghdad, U.S. forces keep up a regular presence with
patrols and combat outposts chiefly around the southern reaches of the
capital.
Meanwhile, the drawdown of British forces in Basra
