[News] Iraqi Battalion Refuses to 'Fight Iraqis'

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Iraqi Battalion Refuses to 'Fight Iraqis'

By Thomas E. Ricks

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, April 11, 2004; Page A01



<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2680-2004Apr10?language=printer>http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2680-2004Apr10?language=printer



BAGHDAD, April 10 -- A battalion of the new Iraqi army refused to go to 
Fallujah earlier this week to support U.S. Marines battling for control of 
the city, senior U.S. Army officers here said, disclosing an incident that 
is casting new doubt on U.S. plans to transfer security matters to Iraqi 
forces.



It was the first time U.S. commanders had sought to involve the postwar 
Iraqi army in major combat operations, and the battalion's refusal came as 
large parts of Iraqi security forces have stopped carrying out their duties.



The 620-man 2nd Battalion of the Iraqi Armed Forces refused to fight Monday 
after members of the unit were shot at in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in 
Baghdad while en route to Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, said U.S. 
Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who is overseeing the development of Iraqi 
security forces. The convoy then turned around and returned to the 
battalion's post on a former Republican Guard base in Taji, a town north of 
the capital.



Eaton said members of the battalion insisted during the ensuing 
discussions: "We did not sign up to fight Iraqis."



He declined to characterize the incident as a mutiny, but rather called it 
"a command failure."



The refusal of the battalion to perform as U.S. officials had hoped poses a 
significant problem for the occupation. The cornerstone of the U.S. 
strategy in Iraq is to draw down its military presence and turn over 
security functions to Iraqis.



Over the past two weeks, that approach has suffered a severe setback as 
Iraqi security forces have crumbled in some parts of the country. In recent 
days perhaps 20 percent to 25 percent of the Iraqi army, civil defense, 
police and other security forces have quit, changed sides, or otherwise 
failed to perform their duties, a senior Army officer said Saturday.



"I wouldn't say it is so widespread that it's the majority," the senior 
officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But it concerns us."



Eaton added: "The lines are blurring for a lot of Iraqis right now, and 
we're having problems with a lot of security functions right now."



A soldier with the 1st Armored Division, who has recently been engaged in 
combat in Baghdad, said many of the Iraqi security troops with whom he has 
worked are no longer reporting for duty. "I think what we are seeing is not 
some mass quitting and mutiny by ICDC [Iraqi Civil Defense Corps], but 
rather just plain fear," the soldier said. "And all it takes is one Iraqi 
to take the lead in leaving, and they all do out of fear."



When the 2nd Battalion graduated from training camp on Jan. 6, Defense 
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld hailed it as a major part of the future of 
Iraq. Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the U.S. commander on the ground in 
Iraq, attended the ceremony and said: "We are now into the accelerated 
period of providing Iraqi security forces, and these soldiers look very 
proud, very dedicated. I have high expectations that in fact they would 
help us bring security and stability back to the country."



The battlefield refusal of the battalion -- one of just four that exist in 
the Iraqi army -- began Monday when it was ordered to travel about 60 miles 
to support the Marines, then locked in battle with fighters in Fallujah. 
The mission of the Iraqi troops was to help with secondary military tasks 
such as manning road checkpoints and securing the perimeter, Eaton said.



One of the problems, Eaton said, was that the Iraqi troops were not told 
they would be given a relatively benign role, and assumed they were being 
hurled into the middle of a bloody fight, battling on the side of the 
Americans against Arabs. "The battalion thought it was going to be thrown 
into a firestorm in Fallujah," he said.



Complicating communications, he said, was that the battalion had 10 new 
U.S. advisers who rotated into their jobs April 1, just four days before 
the incident, replacing the advisers who had trained the unit for months.



The battalion, traveling by truck and escorted by troops from the U.S. 
Army's 1st Armored Division, passed through a Shiite area in northwest 
Baghdad. They were fired on, and six members of the unit were wounded, one 
seriously, Eaton said. A crowd of Shiites gathered and "surged" at the 
convoy, he said. "They were stunned that they were taken under fire by 
their fellow population," he said.



The battalion was then sent back to Taji, where preparations were made to 
fly it to the Fallujah area. But opposition to the mission stiffened, Eaton 
said, "so we decided not to involve them in the Fallujah operation."



Accounts differ on whether the other Iraqi battalion based at Taji also 
indicated that it would decline to go to Fallujah. Eaton said it was not 
involved, because it was not yet deemed ready to fight.



But the other Army official said that a decision was made not to force the 
issue with that unit's commanders. "I don't think they pushed them to the 
brink where they said, 'Hell, no, we won't go,' " the official said.



The two senior officers also differed on what motivated the refusal.



The Iraqi rebuff was based on "pure fear," said the Army official. "They 
just got cold feet."



But Eaton, who visited the unit the day after the incident, disagreed. He 
noted that Iraqi troops have "fought very, very bravely" against Iran. He 
said that, in his view, the problem was caused by poor leadership and 
complicated by the fact that the unit was trained by U.S. advisers who 
emphasized that their job would be to defend Iraq against outside forces.



Eaton, who oversees the organization, training and equipping of the Iraqi 
army, the civil defense force, the police, security guards and border 
patrol, said the recalcitrant battalion's Iraqi leadership would be 
"reorganized."



He also said that training would be different for future battalions, and 
handled almost exclusively by Iraqi officers, a group of which recently 
finished re-training in Jordan. "They will train their own men," he said.



Eaton, who previously was chief of infantry training for the U.S. Army, 
said that solutions would be found to the setback.



"Is it disappointing? Obviously," he said. "We're just going to work our 
way through it."



© 2004 The Washington Post Company



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