The Redhunter

Attacks are Down

GEN. FIL: Attacks are down in the city. The temporary barriers we've (emplaced ?) around markets and the densely populated areas have caused the terrorist attacks to be less lethal over the past months and allowed life to grow inside the barriers. Baghdad currently has the lowest level of attacks within the 10 security districts since we first arrived here more than 10 months ago.

Since Fard al-Qanun began back in mid-February, there's been more than a 50 percent reduction in overall attacks per week. Small arms fire attacks are half of what they were in February. The number of car bombs per week is well under half of when this operation began, and the ones that do detonate are much much less lethal than they were initially. Likewise, mortar and rocket attacks have declined by way more than 50 percent in the same period. We've also seen a steep overall decline in the number of IED detonations and a corresponding increase in the number found prior to detonation. I believe that these trends indicate that our arrests of key IED cell members, combined with an increased ability to find IED caches, is having an overall impact on the enemy's ability to build and use these murderous weapons of terror.

Now, while attack trends are down over all, the level of violence is still too high. We're still seeing attacks against the population and our forces despite recent calls for a stand-down. Our reports show that during the first two weeks of September, extremist groups conducted mortar, rocket and EFP attacks, RPG attacks against tanks and surface-to-air missile launches.
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Control of Baghdad Neighborhoods

Q General, hi. It's David Cloud with The New York Times. In the past in speaking to us you've given us a breakdown of your assessment of the Baghdad neighborhoods and whether they're cleared, held, retained -- and there's one more category which escapes me at the moment. Can you run through that again with us, or what the status of those are now, and just give us a sense of your rough timetable for moving into the latter categories?

GEN. FIL: Yeah, thanks. I can, and I'll just run through them. The the four categories that we track as we progress through the evolution of security in the city is, first of all, disruption, then clearance, followed by a control phase, and then finally, retain, which is the one in which Iraqi security forces are primarily in the lead.

We started off with 70 percent of them in disruption, and about 21 percent of them in clearance last February. We're now down to about 16 percent in disruption and about 30 percent that remain in clearance. But the number in control and retain now are, of the 474 muhallas in Baghdad, well over 250 of them are in control and retain, some 56 percent.
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So I would expect that, you know, in the next several months, we would continue this progress and would be well over the 56 percent or so that we're at right now, and control and retain.

The IED Threat

Q General, this is Anna Mulrine with U.S. News and World Report. I'm just wondering, what do you feel like is the toughest part of what you're doing in Baghdad today? What's your biggest challenge right now in the city? ...

GEN. FIL: It continues to be the IEDs that are the -- really the biggest threat to our soldiers. They're the biggest killer. It's a very tough weapon to find because there are many ways to disguise them, even putting them into concrete and simulating the curb from the side of the road. So we're working very hard against these, not only against them when we find them, but against the networks that are putting them in there and those networks that supply them. So that continues to be the main effort, frankly, offensively.

And I do think we've had, you know, huge progress. The numbers of these IEDs continue to come down and their effectiveness, and now we're finding many more of them than are actually being used against us. But it's still a challenge, and it's the number one killer of soldiers over here.
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The Militia Threat

Q General, Julian Barnes from the Los Angeles Times here. I was wondering if you could tell us about the willingness of local police to move against militias in their neighborhood, particularly these local volunteers that you spoke of. Are they willing to take actions against entrenched militias?

GEN. FIL: They've been -- well, first of all, these forces -- we're not using them offensively, and so they are -- right now they are to serve as security volunteers, and they are helping us to keep people out and to serve -- the militias out and to serve as an early warning network in coordination with the police and the coalition forces and the Iraqi army forces that are in these neighborhoods. But we are not right now using them offensively to actually fight against al Qaeda or militias in the cities.

And to answer your question, are they willing to? Yes, they are, and they want to. And as they are eventually incorporated into the Iraqi security forces, whether it be the police, the Iraqi, you know, Police Service, the national police or the Iraqi army, we'll certainly use them that way.
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MRAP: Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle

Q And just one other question about -- you mentioned the IED threat -- IED threats. I'm just curious how many of the MRAPs, the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, you have, how many more you need, and do you think they make a different -- a big difference in the U.S. casualty rate in your area of responsibility? GEN. FIL: We have not -- although we have RC-31s and some of the route clearance equipment that we've had, you know, for some time here, and it's very effective, we in the 1st Cavalry Division, Multinational Division-Baghdad have not yet received the MRAPs. We do expect to be getting it shortly, and one of our districts is a priority for General Odierno and the allocation of these. And so we do expect to be receiving them shortly.

General Odierno has looked at the entire nation, and he has -- based on the different brigade combat teams across Iraq, and the threat that they have faced, he's prioritized them and then made the allocations according to that prioritization.... So we're satisfied that it's the right way to get them distributed here. And again, they're coming fast.