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'In the Land of the Blood Feuds'
American soldiers guard a Sunni cemetery in Khidr, Iraq, on a mission to find unidentified men spotted burying weapons there.
(By Sudarsan Raghavan -- The Washington Post)
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Here, al-Qaeda in Iraq is neither the largest nor the deadliest opponent. U.S. commanders say foreign fighters working with the predominantly Iraqi group are rare in this region. Commanders estimate that there are as few as 50 hard-core al-Qaeda members, whose activities are mostly restricted to financing attacks in the area.
Garrett views extremist elements of the Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as his biggest enemy.
"They continue to target us, so we continue to target them," Garrett said.
"We blow AQI and Jaish al-Islami up and make them bigger than they are," said Lt. Col. Robert Balcavage, commander of the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division, using an abbreviation for al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Arabic name for the Islamic Army, the dominant Sunni insurgent group in the region.
Of the 23 soldiers he lost from November through July, Balcavage said, six were killed by Sunni insurgents or in Sunni areas and 12 by Shiite militias or in Shiite areas. Four died in accidents, and another was killed in a mixed area, he said.
At Forward Operating Base Iskan, 10 miles west of Kalsu, Balcavage powered up his laptop. The barrel-chested West Point graduate pulled up a colorful map of his area of operations labeled "The Faultline and You," which he uses in presentations to his soldiers. It depicts a world divided into sectors representing different levels of threat, from different kinds of enemies.
Balcavage clicked on the center of the map. A white text box popped up with an arrow pointing at the base.
"REMEMBER . . . YOU LIVE RIGHT HERE," it read.
Iskandariyah
On a recent day along what they call Route Cleveland, Balcavage's soldiers were on high alert. Since they began operations here in November, there had been at least six EFP attacks on the two-lane road to Iskandariyah. The convoy of Humvees moved slowly, the drivers avoiding large rocks or concrete blocks where bombs are typically planted.
They cautiously passed what they call the "EFP hot zone," a sprawling apartment complex filled with Mahdi Army militiamen. Larger-than-life images of Sadr, the cleric, were plastered on buildings.
Two minutes later, the convoy entered a Sunni insurgent zone, passing a large Sunni mosque. Two minutes after that, they were back in Shiite territory as they headed into the heart of Iskandariyah to meet Sabah al-Khafaji, a contractor, to discuss some business.
"Before, we were afraid only of Saddam" Hussein, Khafaji said, sitting in his spacious office, its walls adorned with aerial photos of his bus factory and pictures of luxury cars. "Now, there are many sides we're afraid of. If we push on this side, they will kill you. If you poke on that side, they will kill you, and if you poke over there, then they will kill you," he said, pointing south, east and west in turn.
