U.S., Iraqi Forces Winning in Western Anbar Province, Colonel Says

Courtesy Photo | While on a routine meet and greet, Marines from Company L, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, came across a family with a two-year-old girl in need of heart surgery. The battalion surgeon examined Amenah Al'a Thabit, and determined that she had a congenital heart condition, and was in urgent need of surgery. The battalion, in conjunction with full Iraqi government support, along with the U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security gave support in getting Amenah the help she needed. The surgery is being done at no cost to the family with all the money being privately donated. Amenah is scheduled to return home one month after the surgery. (U.S. Marine Corps Photo/Lance Cpl. Shawn Coolman)  

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES

04.20.2008

Courtesy Story

Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs           

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON - Increased security brought about by military success against insurgents in the western portion of Iraq's Anbar province is enabling a drawdown of U.S. forces there as well as enhanced regional reconstruction efforts, a senior Marine commander told Pentagon reporters on April 14.

"The insurgents, by and large, have been marginalized in western Anbar," Marine Corps Col. Pat Malay, commander of Regimental Combat Team 5, told Pentagon reporters during a satellite-carried news conference from Camp Ripper, Iraq. Malay's area of operations comprises about 30,000 square miles, an area about the size of South Carolina.

During a previous Iraq tour in Fallujah two years ago, Malay recalled, multitudes of foreign fighters were entering western Iraq from Syria. Today, there are very few foreign fighters in his area of operations, he observed.

"Quite frankly, I think we've killed a lot of them, and I think that the enemy is having a more difficult time recruiting to the numbers that they have in the past," Malay said. In addition, foreign fighters no longer are transiting across the Syrian border into Anbar province, the colonel said.

With insurgents "on the run" in western Anbar province, the resultant reduced violence has enabled a drawdown of U.S. forces in his sector, Malay said. Three of his command's five battalions have rotated home over the past three months, he noted.

Meanwhile, the numbers of Iraqi security forces in western Anbar continue to grow, Malay said, noting his area of operations now has 5,000 police, 1,000 highway patrolmen and 7,000 Iraqi soldiers.

Iraqi soldiers and police are increasingly taking the lead in security operations, Malay said. Recent Iraqi-led operations have achieved successes against insurgents in Hit, Haditha and Qaim, he pointed out.

The drop in violence also has enabled a larger focus on reconstruction programs such as building needed schools and providing water and electricity needs for the local populace, the colonel added.

Citing recent humanitarian assistance efforts in Anbar province, Malay pointed to the story of Amenah, a 2-year-old Iraqi girl from Haditha who was flown to the United States in February for surgery on her ailing heart. Surgeons at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., were able to correct Amenah's congenital heart defect, Malay said. Today, Amenah is a healthy little girl, he noted, while the Haditha hospital is now receiving much-needed upgrades so it can attend to other sick children.

The American public should be very proud of U.S. servicemembers' efforts in Anbar province, Malay said.

"They're the next great generation, and they are winning here," Malay said of the Marines, sailors, airmen and soldiers serving in Anbar. "It's mind-boggling; the changes that have taken place here."

• Date Taken: 04.20.2008
• Date Posted: 04.20.2008 15:54
• Story ID: 18585
• Location: WASHINGTON, DC, US