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WASHINGTON D.C. (April 21, 2008) - 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 last week.
"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."
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