One Utah

During our invasion of Iraq back in 2003, I wondered why the Iraqis didn’t demolish bridges on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to delay the advancing Americans. Our commanders were careful to keep the enemy guessing about exactly which bridges we intended to cross, but why not blow them all? I suppose lack of orders from Baghdad and a general lack of initiative may explain it.

The Iraqis did finally take out a bridge as the Marines were storming into Baghdad. That was when those amphibious assault vehicles came in handy, in a dramatic crossing of the Tigris. But the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division captured the bridges they needed intact.

Well, the current enemy is not lacking in initiative. The occupation forces are dependent on the Iraqi highway system, particularly the 300 mile long supply route from Kuwait to Baghdad. IEDs and ambushes have caused a lot of casualties, but the insurgents know that the bridges are the weakest links. And they are taking them out one by one.

Another goal of the current campaign is probably to inconvenience as many people as possible and undermine faith in Iraqi authorities. Lost bridges force drivers to make detours, often through dangerous areas. Every bridge that’s still standing becomes a security checkpoint, tying down occupation or Iraqi soldiers and causing traffic delays.

The war of the bridges began last April 12 when a truck bomb collapsed the Al-Sarafiya Bridge across the Tigris in northern Baghdad during a traffic jam, killing ten people and sending cars and trucks into the river. The 75-year-old British-built bridge was a city landmark. Two days later, a similar attack on the Al-Jadiriya bridge south of the Green Zone killed eight people.

In mid-May, two remotely-detonated car bombs brought down the Badoush Bridge spanning the Tigris in Mosul, and others severely damaged the Old Diyala Bridge and the nearby New Diyala Bridge, which span the Diyala River, a tributary of the Tigris in southern Baghdad. The Iraqi government imposed restrictions that ban trucks from traveling on all but two of the capital’s 13 bridges in fear of another major attack. Ordinary Iraqis had to resort to small boats to cross the Tigris after the bridge bombings.

A major highway bridge connecting Baghdad and Kirkuk, the Sarha Bridge near the town of Tuz Khurmato on the Chinchal river, some 100 miles north of Baghdad was brought down by explosives on June 2. On June 11, another major span across the Diyala River near Baquba was destroyed.

This month in Anbar Province, insurgents took out the Wadi Hajlan bridge, a chokepoint for forces moving between Haditha and Hit, and the Haqlaniya bridge linking Haditha to al-Boghdadi.

How long can they afford to lose 2-3 bridges a month? What is being done to replace these bridges?

This entry was posted Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Disaster, Iraq, This Blog, War. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.