American troops newly arrived in Iraq as part of the “surge” are already conducting military operations to block supplies of arms to insurgents. On Tuesday morning, army spokesmen reported that US soldiers are spread out southeast of the capital along the Tigris river, where they are destroying boats used by arms transporters. On Monday morning General Rick Lynch reported on the first results, but complained that Iraqi security forces are poorly prepared and not yet battle-worthy, although they are essential to Bush administration efforts to set up an exit strategy.

Boat Bombs. “We're absolutely convinced that extremists are using the Tigris River valley as a way to bring violence into Baghdad,” Lynch declared to journalists during a press conference about the Tigris operation, which officially began on June 15. IEDs are homemade bombs laid along roads where US military convoys pass. In the past two years they have caused the majority of US military casualties. The Sunnis build IEDs, while the Shiites use explosives called EFP (explosively formed projectiles), which are more sophisticated and capable of perforating the armor plating of military vehicles. Washington charges that the EFPs are built in Iran and shipped from Teheran to Shiite militias through clandestine paths that pass through the valleys south of Baghdad. The commander of operations in the Tigris Valley stated that many of the boats they have hit have exploded, confirming suspicions that they are packed with bombs. The recent raids in the Tigris area have been made possible by the arrival of recent US reinforcements, which bring to 150,000 the number of US soldiers in Iraq. Most troops are occupied fighting Shiite militias south of the capital. Lynch reported that US forces encircled the rebel stronghold so as not to allow them to escape, leaving them with two choices: arrest or death. 150 insurgents were arrested, including about 30 with important roles.

Iraqi Troops. The US commander says that in order to hang onto the progress made in cleaning out areas infested by militias and to cut off supply lines, there will need to be three or four times the current number of Iraqi soldiers. The General maintains that, four years after the invasion, the Iraqi Army still lacks personnel and equipment, while other security forces have been infiltrated by Shiite militias, making them untrustworthy. “The local police,” he said, “is almost invisible, and where it does have a presence, it tends to be corrupt.” Lynch says that large zones of the “battlefield,” that is, Iraq, are occupied neither by Coalition forces nor by Iraqi forces, leaving a power vacuum that is immediately filled by militias. His criticism of the Iraqi security forces reflects growing Pentagon impatience about US casualties – 96 have been killed so far in June – and US public opinion, which is calling for an end to the war. Since the beginning of 2007, US troops have been fighting in security operations across large swaths of the country, but so far it looks as though Iraqi troops are not ready to begin taking their place.