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| Slow death, Slow freedom in grinding conflict on Iraq-Syria border
HUSAYBAH, Iraq, Nov 6 (AFP) - The Euphrates river winds through dense pasture and palm trees, affording cover to any foreign fighter or smuggler who might slip across one of the gaping holes in the security fence on the Iraqi-Syrian border. The ravines and brush leave the foreign fighter at the doorstep of Husaybah, a run-down, sprawling border town of 120,000, already in the throes of a violent insurgency with combatants promising to deliver the Americans to an early grave. BizVantage – Beyond the news: indepth on business, investment and technology. Here, the words "Slow Dayth" are spraypainted, albeit misspelled, on every city wall. And the US soldiers have responded with their own crude red graffiti "Slow Freedom" in counterpoint. With its prime location, and a new US effort to seal the border off, the town has turned into a major battlefront, with US troops and Iraqi police coming under daily attack as they try to prevent foreign fighters and smugglers from entering Iraq. "Husaybah is the gateway. It is a test of the wills," says Major Daniel Dwyer of the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment's 1st Squadron. "I think the enemy has become concerned about losing. We've denied them the ability to cross the border north and south of the river." Until mid-October, Dwyer concedes there was a chance for foreigners to slip into Iraq. Only about half of the 1,100-strong 1st Squadron was assigned to the porous and crucial zone, thought to be a main pathway for seekers of Islamic holy war. "From May until September, we were focused on the border checkpoint and engaging the city. We didn't have the capabilities we have now," says Dwyer. "If you were a foreigner and you wanted to come in, you would take trails or breaks in the berms (dirt walls) because of the lack of a large coalition presence. There was an opportunity for foreigners to enter." This left the area's best infiltration point, around the Euphrates just north of Husaybah's border checkpoint, without regular patrols. The route boasts forest camouflage, villagers willing to take a bribe and quick and easy access to the main highway leading right to the hotbeds of resistance, Ramadi and Fallujah inside the conservative, desert province of al-Anbar. "Further south, down the border, there was nothing as convenient," Dwyer says. Since October 15, the full 1st Squadron, ranging from infantry and tank companies to air support, has been scouting the 200-kilometer (125-mile) border that falls within al-Anbar. But as the army looks to tighten the noose, it has turned Husaybah into a full-fledged war zone. And the combattants are succeeding in dissuading locals from cooperating with the Americans. The police have been hardest hit, with the police chief gunned down driving home on October 9th, shot in the head and chest. His white GMC sits in front of the police station, with its windows crushed in. His replacement was wounded in a mortar attack and decided not to return to the job. Armed men have twice taken over the station and threatened to kill cops if they do not leave their job. The mayor's home was strafed with 50 bullets on one occasion. The violence has strained relations between the police and the Americans. US soldiers mistakenly shot dead a policeman coming on duty at a water tower last Thursday, according to the police and the Americans. While the US military says the death is under investigation, the cops are clearly shaken. "The people are shooting at us and so are the Americans. We don't know what to do," says the third police chief in less than a month, Captain Khalil Ibrahim. And he is most worried about those Iraqis waging war on him. "They are Islamists, Saddam supporters and thieves," says Ibrahim, with a haggard look on his face after his station suffered another grueling night under mortar attack. The locals call the fighters "Mujahedeen", Arabic for an Islamic holy warrior, and while they proudly boast the fighters are all Iraqi, the Americans are not so sure. "When we face a coordinated attack, it either means a foreign fighter or regime loyalists," Dwyer says. One such attack was a 10 to 12 rocket-propelled grenade ambush of a convoy by a village called Saada last Friday. Several soldiers were wounded and a vehicle destroyed. Back in Husaybah, people wear their staunch anti-Americanism proudly, and tell wild patently untrue stories of CIA agents hanged from bridges and helicopters dropping the bodies of dead soldiers into the desert, emitting a foul stench. "We are all Mujahedeen," says a bearded man, outside a US post in danger of being shelled as soon as night falls. np/lg/kir Iraq-Syria-border
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