US forces in Iraq use French anti-insurgency methods

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) — The US military has adopted tactics first used by French soldiers more than 50 years ago in Algeria, as it seeks to subdue Al-Qaeda remnants in one of Iraq's most violent cities.

By dividing communities into small sectors and putting informants in charge, American forces are using anti-insurgency methods invented by France during Algeria's war of independence.

But in battling the followers of Al-Qaeda in Baquba northeast of Baghdad, as well as elsewhere in Iraq, American commanders say they refrain from another practice commonplace during the Algerian war -- torture.

"What we are doing in Iraq is inspired by what the French did in Algeria in the fight against the insurgency" between 1954 and 1962, an adviser to the US State Department...