U.S. Conducts Wide-Ranging Sweeps in Iraq

FALLOUJA, Iraq —  A series of U.S. raids across Iraq on Sunday targeting anti-American forces marks the beginning of a major military operation that is likely to last well into the scorching summer season, commanders said.

The operation, named Desert Scorpion, is expected to be the broadest effort in Iraq since major combat ended May 1. It will rely primarily on Army units to carry out sweeps. Their primary focus is likely to be on central Iraq, a Sunni Muslim stronghold where remnants of former President Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party as well as other factions appear to be active.

In Fallouja, a town 35 miles west of Baghdad where U.S. soldiers have been repeatedly attacked, Lt. Col. Eric Schwartz of the 3rd Infantry Division said Sunday that he foresees “a rolling operation” that would last for weeks.

Capt. Michael Calvert, a public affairs officer attached to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment stationed in Ramadi, about 60 miles west of Baghdad, said that in “the next few weeks there will be a countrywide, concerted effort to gather up the people that we believe are threats to coalition forces and civil order.”

While there has been a series of operations targeting anti-American elements in Iraq in recent days, Sunday’s sweeps -- in Fallouja, Tikrit, Ramadi and other cities -- marked the beginning of the nationwide enforcement effort.

The broad, long-term nature of the operation suggests that Americans here expect a prolonged period of resistance and believe that unless the instigators are rooted out, it will be impossible to create the safe environment necessary to set up an independent Iraqi government and allow aid organizations to work.

On Sunday, a U.S. convoy was ambushed near the town of Balad north of Baghdad, wounding several soldiers, Reuters reported. Afterward, a crippled U.S. truck could be seen smoldering on the highway south of Balad as Apache helicopters buzzed overhead, searching for the attackers.

U.S. officials say those attacking American forces include former Baath Party members who remain loyal to the old regime, individuals with anti-American sentiments and foreign ties, and common criminals who are paid to target Americans.

“There have been numerous intelligence reports indicating there would be problems until you achieved stability,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I think we will be able to stabilize it over time.”

Roberts and Sen. Carl Levin, (D-Mich.), who is also on the committee, said that based on the information they have access to there is no evidence that Hussein is directing the assaults or indeed that any one person is responsible.

“It’s mainly Baath Party at this moment,” Levin said. “But there are a lot of other folks involved who are fanatic in their religious views who have also attacked American forces.”

In addition to the well-publicized list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis, the U.S. military has a secondary list of Iraqis it is seeking, Calvert said.

Known as the Black List, it includes about 200 Baathists and others who are wanted for suspected war crimes or for questioning about their prewar activities, he said.

In a string of towns west of Baghdad along the Euphrates River, U.S. military commanders Sunday morning were starting to assess what they had found during the overnight raids. They were also planning the next steps and attempting to counterbalance their confrontations with popular civic activities.

In many towns, U.S. forces staged gasoline giveaways in which troops stood in the midday sun pumping gas for Iraqis -- a job usually done by poor laborers here.

As military leaders described the process they will undertake in the coming weeks, it became clear that Operation Desert Scorpion will be a painstaking combination of gathering and confirming intelligence, taking military action, then gathering more intelligence.

“The information we gained last night, we’ll be able to capitalize on for the next couple of weeks,” Schwartz said.

About a dozen people were detained Sunday in Fallouja, and a few weapons were found. At one of at least four locations raided, seven people with bombs, bomb-making material and communications equipment were arrested, said Col. David Perkins, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade, according to the Associated Press.

Schwartz said his men had information about a gun exchange point where truck drivers were allegedly delivering stockpiles of arms for use against American soldiers.

By 2:30 a.m. they had sealed off southern Fallouja. “No one could go in or out,” he said.

When troops entered the alleged gun market, it turned out that the truck drivers were not ferrying arms. But interrogations turned up what Schwartz called “quite a lot of human information.”

Residents are also volunteering information on the whereabouts of antagonistic locals and their weapons stashes. While not all of it is good, Schwartz said the important thing is to have a healthy flow and then let the military identify which data are worth acting on.

His division is hunting primarily for former Baath Party members who are believed to be recruiting and paying people to attack Americans. “The guy out there with the weapon may not be a Baathist, but he’s funded by him,” Schwartz said.

U.S. forces said they are also looking for “terrorist types” who may be foreigners. So far, however, they have not found any such people.

Increasingly, in Fallouja, the U.S. military has come to believe what city leaders have told them: The instigators of the violence are outsiders who either come into the city or pay locals to shoot at Americans.

Schwartz, however, is hopeful that the tide is turning in the U.S.’ favor. A couple of days after Schwartz’s division arrived last week, the Americans sat down with local imams, sheiks, the mayor and other community leaders and listened to their complaints.

The leaders said they wanted the Americans to stay outside the town and stop patrolling in tanks and armored personnel carriers, which are noisy and so heavy that they leave pits in the asphalt that is softened by the midday heat. They also objected to a curfew set by the Americans.

The military moved out of town, agreed to limit its patrols to quieter Humvees -- except when it was engaged in a military operation -- and stopped enforcing the curfew. Since those changes were implemented, it has been calm in Fallouja.

U.S. forces will continue to exercise such flexibility, Schwartz said, as long as Fallouja residents treat Americans well. He is planning to put his soldiers in the open in town, where they could be targets. If they can operate without problems, he said, the looser environment will remain in place.

“It depends on the next week -- what kind of response we get from our routine operations, guarding key sites, bringing back the infrastructure. If they strike at us, if they start to kill Americans, we’re going to go back” to previous practices, he said.

The timing of Sunday’s operation was tied to the end of a weapons amnesty program, Calvert said. The two-week program allowed Iraqis to surrender, without penalty, outlawed arms such as machine guns, grenades and other weapons that aren’t used for personal protection.

“As you’ve seen, that program was relatively ineffective,” he said. “While we’ve captured a lot of weapons in our daily raids, there have been very few turned in.

“So in conjunction with the end of the amnesty, we were gathering intelligence on people that were threats or agitators, and we were trying to get intelligence on their whereabouts.”

Calvert noted that while rooting out anti-American elements is a prime aim of the new operation, the military is also concerned about individuals who sabotage the country’s infrastructure. For instance, there have been repeated attacks on convoys of trucks bringing fuel to gas stations.

Such disruptions lengthen lines at stations, push up gas prices and make life more difficult for ordinary Iraqis, he said.

Taking part in the operation are the 1st Armored Division, the 3rd Infantry Division, the 4th Infantry Division and the 2nd and 3rd Armored Cavalries.

“The overarching philosophy is there is a certain element we need to remove from Iraq for there to be peace and security. Desert Scorpion is the broadest operation in scope and size since the end of the war,” said Sgt. Brian Thomas, the spokesman in Baghdad for Coalition Joint Task Force 7.

“There is no timetable. The commanders have objectives, and when they meet them, this thing will be over.”

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Times staff writer Michael Slackman in Baghdad contributed to this report.