WASHINGTON, Nov 28: A US military report, published on Tuesday, warns that Al Qaeda is now fully entrenched in Iraq and acknowledges that American troops can no longer defeat the insurgency in Iraq.
The five-page US Marines report — written by Colonel Peter Devlin — is marked secret, for dissemination to US and allied troops in Iraq only.
The report, “State of the Insurgency in Al-Anbar,” focuses on conditions in the province that is home to 1.25 million Iraqis, most of whom live in violence-ridden towns such as Fallujah, Haditha, Hit, Qaim and Ramadi.
The Washington Post, which attained a copy of the report, says that it depicts a “far bleaker” picture than US officials generally admit.
“The fundamental questions of lack of control, growth of the insurgency and criminality” remain the same, a US intelligence official told the Post while commenting on the report which was written in August.
The Marines report describes Iraq’s Sunni minority as “embroiled in a daily fight for survival,” fearful of “pogroms” by the Shiite majority and increasingly dependent on Al Qaeda in Iraq as its only hope against growing Iranian dominance across the capital.
True or not, the memo says, “from the Sunni perspective, their greatest fears have been realised: Iran controls Baghdad and Anbaris (resident of the western Anbar province) have been marginalised.”
Moreover, most Sunnis now believe it would be unwise to count on or help US forces because they are seen as likely to leave the country before imposing stability, the report adds.
Between Al Qaeda’s violence, Iran’s influence and an expected US drawdown, “the social and political situation has deteriorated to a point” that US and Iraqi troops “are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency in Al-Anbar”. In the Anbar province alone, at least 90 US troops have died since Sept 1.
“Read as a complete assessment, the report paints a stark portrait of a failed province and of the country’s Sunnis – once dominant under Saddam Hussein – now desperate, fearful and impoverished,” the Post says.
The report notes that illicit oil trading is providing millions of dollars to Al Qaeda while “official profits appear to feed Shiite cronyism in Baghdad.”
As a result, “the potential for economic revival appears to be nonexistent” in Anbar, the report says. The Iraqi government has not paid salaries for Anbar officials and Iraqi forces stationed there. Anbar’s resources and its ability to impose order are depicted as limited at best.
“Despite the success of the December elections, nearly all government institutions from the village to provincial levels have disintegrated or have been thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated by Al Qaeda in Iraq,” or a smattering of other insurgent groups, the report says.
