The Christian Science Monitor had a report yesterday from a correspondent in Babil province, south of Baghdad. It seems the Anbar model, which has led to a dramatic drop in violence in that province, is now being successfully applied in Babil as well:
The violence has dropped dramatically, say US commanders, in the towns surrounding this base in northern Babil Province, south of Baghdad. In May, four improvised explosive device (IED) attacks targeted the battalion; none in August, says Maj. Craig Whiteside, executive officer of the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment. Fewer undetonated IEDs have been found – five in May and two in August. Indirect fire and small-arms violence have also dropped from about a dozen incidents in May to less than three in August. The reason, they say, is that the same approach that won success in Anbar Province, where the Marines gained support of Sunni tribesmen against Al Qaeda, is taking hold in mixed-sectarian areas. But here, Americans have enlisted Shiites frustrated with extremists from such groups as the Mahdi Army, run by Moqtada al-Sadr.
Go read the whole thing, but this has always been the skeptic’s complaint about extrapolating any potential for broad progress from the success in Anbar, Iraq’s most homogeneous province. But if it can work in Babil…
