8<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Temu akbar HANATA 2004, 3-4 Januari 2004 di Ciater
Pendaftaran di Milis Anggota, atau SMS ke 0815-9500-697
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>8
WCDS,
satu lagi artikel menarik dari AP. Isinya ttg taktik &
strategi militer AS menghadapi insurgen Irak.
*******************************************
U.S. Forces Adapt to Environment in Iraq
Mon Dec 22, 1:56 PM ET
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer
TIKRIT, Iraq - In the early days of the guerrilla war,
Lt. Col. Steven Russell's troops battled groups of
insurgents armed with automatic weapons and
rocket-propelled grenades.
Against Russell's tanks and Bradleys, the rebels were
overwhelmed. So they adapted, switching to roadside
bombs, hiding them in animal carcasses, sandbags and
trash cans. Then the rebels learned U.S. patrol
patterns. They launched a recent ambush on one unit by
releasing a flock of pigeons to signal the arrival of
American vehicles.
"They got smarter, so do we," said Russell, a
battalion commander with the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry
Division. "We've certainly been able to adapt."
Russell said his battalion responded by varying its
movements. Soldiers developed a quick, efficient
method for dealing with roadside bombs: blasting them
with machine gun fire from their Abrams M1-A1 tanks,
making the bombs explode harmlessly.
Some of those makeshift explosives — activated by
trip-wires, hard-wired electric triggers or remote
control transmitters stripped from toys or doorbells —
still explode with deadly effect.
On Monday, two soldiers from the U.S. Army's 1st
Armored division and their Iraqi translator were
killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. Two other
American troops were wounded in the blast.
"This is their weapon of choice," said Capt. Jon
Cecalupo, who commands an Army armored unit based in
Tikrit. "They do not want to risk a direct
confrontation."
As the ambushes continued, military convoys began
beefing up their armor, bolting steel plates to the
sides and floors of their Humvees.
"He's a thinking enemy. He gets a vote in our
operations," said Lt. Col. Ken Devan, chief
intelligence officer for the 1st Armored Division in
Baghdad. "In some cases, he's probably looking at our
patterns. That's why we try not to establish any."
The U.S. military has adjusted to enemy tactics in
other ways too.
American tanks and infantry fighting vehicles now
patrol villages because their added height gives a
better field of vision over villages' low brick walls
and squat mud-brick huts. Instead of strafing enemy
positions, combat helicopters are mainly used for
surveillance and intelligence gathering.
Americans say they have also been using snipers to
shoot insurgents who try to hide in a crowd, in an
attempt to lessen civilian deaths in firefights.
In Tikrit, the 4th Infantry built a weapons range
where soldiers on convoy duty practice battling
ambushers, shooting from moving vehicles without
hitting other Humvees and trucks in their convoy.
U.S. commanders also rely heavily on growing
intelligence networks involving Iraqi informers and
computer databases of suspects. Maj. Gen. Raymond
Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry, said such
tools helped his division track and arrest Saddam
Hussein earlier this month.
The software uses pattern-and-link analysis to find
connections between suspected guerrillas, their
funding sources and commanders.
"You try to predict what the enemy's going to do next.
We try to cut him off at the knees," Devan said.
The U.S. military still uses its heavy weaponry at
times. A recent raid involving dozens of Bradley
fighting vehicles that rolled into Samarra, north of
Baghdad, was a clear example of heavy punch tactics.
Samarra has been one of Iraq's persistent hotspots,
with the military estimating that 1,500 guerillas
operate in and around the city.
After the raid, most of guerillas fanned out into the
countryside or went underground, taking their weapons
with them, a U.S. officer in Samara said on condition
of anonymity.
But the heavy U.S. Army presence in the city put an
end to attacks. Local clerics also urged insurgents to
stop ambushing U.S. forces.
In late October, U.S. troops sealed off the village of
Uja — where Saddam was born — and ordered adults to
register for identity cards to allow them move in and
out of the community just outside Tikrit — a hotbed of
anti-American sentiment.
"That was something we initiated. We scooped it in a
fishbowl so we can watch them swim inside it," Russell
said.
U.S. commanders say the battalion's action in Uja was
based on French experiences during the 1950s and early
1960s counterinsurgency in Algeria, when French
paratroopers used barbed wire to seal off Algiers' old
quarter, effectively preventing guerrilla activities.
Others have compared the U.S. tactics to the Israeli
military's typical blockades of the Arab villages it
occupies.
**********************************************
Salam,
Doddy
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing.
http://photos.yahoo.com/
--[YONSATU - ITB]----------------------------------------------------------
Arsip : http://yonsatu.mahawarman.net
News Groups : gmane.org.region.indonesia.mahawarman
News Arsip : http://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.region.indonesia.mahawarman
