In der am 2. September begeonnen Offensive in Tal Afar, der Grössten seit Fallujah, spielten die irakischen Truppen eine grössere Rolle als je zuvor, auch wenn noch vieles fehlt um solche Operationen alleine durchzuführen. Zudem fehlen noch sunnitische Soldaten, zu denen die Menschen in sunnitischen Städten mehr Vertrauen hätten. Dennoch ist dies ein Fortschritt gegenüber dem letzten Jahr.
A fiery explosion — some soldiers said they saw a man throw a grenade, others said the door was rigged to blow — erupted from inside, followed by bursts of gunfire. The shouting soldiers stumbled out through a cloud of smoke, covered in blood. The rest of the platoon, which had lost a lieutenant in a grenade attack the day before, appeared dejected, some huddling around the wounded, others sitting with their heads in their hands.
What happened next, commanders here said, suggested significant progress toward the goal of shifting security functions to Iraqi forces so that the United States can begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. When the clashes grew intense, the Iraqi soldiers did not shrink, American officers said.
They went looking for revenge. When they were ambushed again, in a home one block away, they were ready. After a firefight, they came out smiling proudly, with several raising two fingers to indicate the number of insurgents killed.
“A couple of months ago, they might not have been able to pull it together after something like that,” said Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the U.S. Army’s 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, who witnessed the abortive raid and helped bandage an Iraqi soldier whose wounded hand was pouring blood onto the sidewalk. “They showed a lot of resolve. Eventually, they will be able to control this city.”
The Tall Afar offensive, which began Sept. 2, is the largest urban military operation in Iraq since November’s siege of Fallujah. Unlike many previous joint offensives, however, it is the Iraqi army that has the majority of the soldiers on the ground — 5,000 of the roughly 8,500 troops involved — that does the most intense fighting and that pays the heaviest price. At least nine Iraqi soldiers have been killed during the operation, compared with one American.
“We were not afraid. We are here to protect our country,” said Pvt. Tarek Hazem, 28, of Baghdad, his hands and uniform still red with the blood of men he helped treat when the building exploded. “All we feel is motivated to kill terrorists.”
Tall Afar’s Sunni Muslim majority and its strategic location on a main insurgent smuggling route, 40 miles from Iraq’s border with Syria, make the operation here an important test case for the transition of security duties to Iraqis, commanders said. “If we can get things under control and begin handing off responsibilities here, we can do it anywhere,” McMaster said. “It won’t happen overnight, but progress is being made.”
