The Associated Press Tuesday, May 15, 2007; 8:10 PM
BOSTON -- The war in Iraq hit home for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney as a former aide who also was a son of a war critic was killed while serving in Iraq.
Army 1st Lt. Andrew J. Bacevich, 27, served as a legislative aide to then-Gov. Mitt Romney in 2004, handling all bills sent to the governor's desk for review and signature.
Romney said Tuesday that he talked with Bacevich about his decision to enlist before he left the Massachusetts Statehouse.
"I got to know Andrew as a legislative aide in my office, and before he left we met and talked about his plans," Romney said in a statement. "He was driven by a desire to serve, first as part of our team and then as a member of the military. His loss is a deep personal loss for me and for all of those who knew him."
Bacevich was killed Sunday when an improvised explosive device exploded while he was on a combat patrol in Salah Ad Din Province, Iraq, according to the Defense Department. The soldier had been assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.
Bacevich was a 2003 graduate of Boston University. His father, Andrew, is a Boston University professor, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. The elder Bacevich has criticized President Bush's strategy and said the United States is mired in a war it cannot win through military might alone.
In a statement, Bacevich's family remembered him as a man of humor and handsome looks who had overcome the challenges childhood asthma to be an Army officer and a marathon runner.
"Andy was a born-leader who felt called to serve his country," the statement said. "Our family will miss him dearly and forever."
A U.S. soldier stands guard near a sign that reads "Stop; an official checkpoint authorized by the Iraqi prime minister and Baghdad's operations chief" on a road during a patrol in Salman Pak, about 45 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, February 18, 2008. REUTERS/Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud
Mon Feb 18, 2008 11:49am EST
By Sabah al-Bazi
SAMARRA, Iraq (Reuters) - In northern Iraq, residents fearful of al Qaeda militants hurry home before the sun sets. Cities are virtual ghost towns after dark.
The U.S. military and Iraqi officials have hailed vastly better security in Baghdad, western Anbar province and areas south of the capital, which has allowed people to venture out at night to shop at markets and eat at restaurants.
But in the cities of Samarra, Baquba and Mosul, the militants still sow fear.
"When I don't see al Qaeda wandering around Samarra, pointing weapons in the faces of Iraqis and killing and kidnapping, then I will say security has improved," said grocer Nihad Hameed in the city, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad.
"We come back home at 7 p.m. like chickens. No one can move after that."
U.S. and Iraqi security forces as well as Sunni Arab tribal units have expelled Sunni Islamist al Qaeda from its strongholds in Anbar and the roads around Baghdad, which the militants used as a springboard to launch attacks on the capital.
Many of the militants have since regrouped in northern provinces where U.S. forces were less concentrated and Sunni Arab tribal units had only recently been established.
U.S. and Iraqi troops have launched offensives against al Qaeda this year in northern provinces such as Diyala, Salahuddin and Nineveh. But the campaign is expected to take time.
"Everything in Baquba stops the minute it gets dark," Nada Amaar, a doctor, said from the capital of ethnically and religiously mixed Diyala province.
Ali Muhsin Dawud, 45, a car dealer in Baquba, said he was thinking of moving to another city.
"NO SAFE HAVEN LEFT"
Militant violence in northern provinces comprises 60 percent of all attacks in Iraq, with an average of 66 incidents reported a day during the past year, said Captain Stephen Bomar, a spokesman for the U.S. military in the north.
Attacks overall in the north have slowed in recent months, falling 42 percent since June, compared to a 60 percent drop for the whole of Iraq.
"There is not a safe haven left for these insurgents anywhere, and an unorganized movement to the north is believed to be a last effort to randomly hurt the Iraqi people," said Bomar, adding safety was getting better every day in the north.
In Nineveh, however, attacks have actually risen -- the only part of Iraq where this has happened -- the U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said last week.
Iraqi military and provincial officials in northern provinces acknowledge the concerns of residents. Some have those fears themselves, although they say security is better.
"I cannot walk by myself in Tikrit. I might be killed or kidnapped," said Brigadier-General Muaid al-Tikriti, the Iraqi army chief in Saddam Hussein's home town in Salahuddin province.
A key factor in stabilizing northern provinces will be the Sunni Arab tribal units, which in other parts of Iraq have rebelled against al Qaeda because of its indiscriminate attacks on civilians and harsh interpretation of Islam.
Violence has also fallen in Baghdad and mainly Shi'ite southern Iraq because of a ceasefire by the feared Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Called "concerned local citizens" by the U.S. military, the Sunni Arab tribal units man checkpoints and provide tips on al Qaeda hideouts.
But strains have emerged, especially in Baquba where the units, some comprised of former Sunni Arab insurgents who opposed the Shi'ite-led government, have threatened to quit because of disputes with the city's police chief, a Shi'ite.
Ibrahim al-Bajilan, head of the Diyala provincial council, predicted attacks would double if the tribal units walked away.
SPOTLIGHT ON MOSUL
The other key trouble spot in the north is Mosul, a city of 1.6 million people that is the capital of Nineveh and regarded as al Qaeda's last urban stronghold.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has promised a final, "decisive" battle against al Qaeda in Mosul. U.S. commanders caution the operation will take months.
Fear and rumor pervades Mosul, home to mainly Sunni Arabs but also sizeable communities of Shi'ites and Kurds.
Many people distrust not only al Qaeda, but also the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi security forces. They fear curfews and a mass roundup of suspected militants.
The commander of Nineveh military operations, Major-General Riyadh Tawfiq, promised that arrests would be based on specific intelligence and that no curfew would be imposed.
Locals are taking no chances. Some residents have stocked up on food in preparation for a period of extended fighting.
"I expect the local government will impose a curfew and I'm shopping in anticipation of that," said goldsmith Naseer Hatam, hurrying home with a box of cooking oil and tomato paste.
(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami in Baghdad; Writing by Mohammed Abbas; editing by Dean Yates and Charles Dick)
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