The accounts of the American assault on Kut indicate that the resistance had left before the US arrived.
U.S. troops fanned out across Kut, southeast of the capital, after meeting little resistance in the city, witnesses said, in a major foray by the U.S. military into the south, where U.S. allies have struggled to deal with the uprising by the al-Mahdi Army, led by a radical Shiite cleric.
U.S. forces moved into Kut two days after Ukrainian forces abandoned the city in the face of heavy fighting with followers of the anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Police in several cities have also abandoned their stations or stood aside as the gunmen roam the streets – raising concerns over the performance and loyalty of a force U.S. administrators are counting on to keep security in the future Iraq.
This “retaking” of Kut is the reason the 1st Armored Division, which was to be rotated out of Iraq next week, was held over.
Signaling a strategic shift, the Pentagon has directed elements of the Army’s 1st Armored Division, which has patrolled Baghdad since May and was scheduled to go home within weeks, to move south. Those seasoned troops are needed to help retake cities from Sadr’s militia and to patrol parts of the country that had been occupied by multinational troops of varying combat readiness.
“We are waiting for American forces to come in and restore the peace,” said a coalition official in the south who asked for anonymity because his comments were not in keeping with the coalition’s upbeat public message. “The multinational forces will not do this – they refuse to leave their bases and do routine patrols. In some cases, they’ve withdrawn and refused to fight or hold their ground against minimal attacks.”
So, I think we can conclude that the Americans moved massive firepower into Kut while Sadr’s guerillas faded away leaving the Americans as sitting ducks, trying to hold territory. This American response to Sadr’s guerilla army is a monumental blunder. The Americans seem obsessed about taking government buildings and police stations back from Sadr’s men, when undoubtedly the goal of taking the police stations and government buildings in the first place has already been accomplished by Sadr’s insurgents, which would be to take all weapons and ammunition and wreck communications. Why take back a stripped building? What’s the point?
The NYTimes reports today: Also, the Pentagon has received new intelligence reports warning that Sunni and Shiite militia groups have been ransacking Iraqi police stations in some cities, and then handing out both weapons and police uniforms to angry mobs, government officials said.
Clearly, there are not enough American troops to hold all Iraqi territory militarily. A political solution is necessary to end the violence, but the Americans in Iraq seem incapable of dropping their bravado military stance in favor of negotiation.