- Israeli advisers are helping train US special forces
in aggressive counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use
of assassination squads against guerrilla leaders, US intelligence and
military sources said.
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- The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has sent urban warfare
specialists to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the home of US special forces,
and according to two sources, Israeli military "consultants"
have also visited Iraq.
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- US forces in Iraq's Sunni triangle have already begun
to use tactics that echo Israeli operations in the occupied territories,
sealing off centres of resistance with razor wire and razing buildings
from where attacks have been launched against US troops.
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- But the secret war in Iraq is about to get much tougher,
in the hope of suppressing the Ba'athist-led insurgency ahead of next November's
presidential elections.
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- US special forces teams are already behind the lines
inside Syria attempting to kill foreign jihadists before they cross the
border, and a group focused on the "neutralisation" of guerrilla
leaders is being set up, according to sources familiar with the operations.
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- "This is basically an assassination programme. That
is what is being conceptualised here. This is a hunter-killer team,"
said a former senior US intelligence official, who added that he feared
the new tactics and enhanced cooperation with Israel would only inflame
a volatile situation in the Middle East.
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- "It is bonkers, insane. Here we are - we're already
being compared to Sharon in the Arab world, and we've just confirmed it
by bringing in the Israelis and setting up assassination teams."
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- "They are being trained by Israelis in Fort Bragg,"
a well-informed intelligence source in Washington said.
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- "Some Israelis went to Iraq as well, not to do training,
but for providing consultations." The consultants' visit to Iraq was
confirmed by another US source who was in contact with American officials
there.
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- The Pentagon did not return calls seeking comment, but
a military planner, Brigadier General Michael Vane, mentioned the cooperation
with Israel in a letter to Army magazine in July about the Iraq counter-insurgency
campaign.
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- "We recently travelled to Israel to glean lessons
learned from their counterterrorist operations in urban areas," wrote
General Vane, deputy chief of staff at the army's training and doctrine
command.
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- An Israeli official said the IDF regularly shared its
experience in the West Bank and Gaza with the US armed forces, but said
he could not comment about cooperation in Iraq.
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- "When we do activities, the US military attaches
in Tel Aviv are interested. I assume it's the same as the British. That's
the way allies work. The special forces come to our people and say, do
debrief on an operation we have done," the official said.
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- "Does it affect Iraq? It's not in our interest or
the American interest or in anyone's interest to go into that. It would
just fit in with jihadist prejudices."
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- Colonel Ralph Peters, a former army intelligence officer
and a critic of Pentagon policy in Iraq, said there was nothing wrong with
learning lessons wherever possible. "When we turn to anyone for insights,
it doesn't mean we blindly accept it," Col Peters said.
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- "But I think what you're seeing is a new realism.
The American tendency is to try to win all the hearts and minds. In Iraq,
there are just some hearts and minds you can't win. Within the bounds of
human rights, if you do make an example of certain villages it gets the
attention of the others, and attacks have gone down in the area."
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- The new counter-insurgency unit made up of elite troops
being put together in the Pentagon is called Task Force 121, New Yorker
magazine reported in yesterday's edition.
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- One of the planners behind the offensive is a highly
controversial figure, whose role is likely to inflame Muslim opinion: Lieutenant
General William "Jerry" Boykin.
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- In October, there were calls for his resignation after
he told a church congregation in Oregon that the US was at war with Satan,
who "wants to destroy us as a Christian army".
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- "He's been promoted a rank above his abilities,"
he said. "Some generals are pretty good on battlefield but are disastrous
nearer the source of power."
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