Family members of 18 children who died in a car bomb attack in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad sit with portraits of their children during a commemoration luncheon with Iraqi government officials in July 2005. ©AP Images/Khalid MohammedUS Troops Find A New Tactic To Thwart Suicide Bombs In Iraq -- Times Online
US special forces stand guard, rifles raised, as soldiers lug two stretchers into a building in this restive city northeast of Baghdad.
Not long ago the stretchers might have carried the dead and wounded from the latest suicide bomb attack or bloody skirmish with insurgents. Now, however, they hold nothing more sinister than colourful strips of dressmaking material for an Iraqi women’s conference. Pieces of fabric are given to each woman who attends the meeting in Baquba.
Providing security at a women’s morning contrasts with the more action-packed image associated with special forces operations, but it illustrates one of a range of softer tactics also being employed to crack the insurgency. The hearts-and-minds mission is particularly important in Diyala province, the scene of most of the 32 female suicide bombings in Iraq this year.
“We do five or six sets of operations, some are kinetic, some are not kinetic and some are mixed in between,” a special forces soldier told The Times, which was invited on the mission. “What we do is by, with and through [the Iraqis].”
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My Comment: Food and blankets can sometimes be more effective than bullets.