"They Kill and Destroy. We Secure, Rebuild and Provide Hope.”

Responding to a tip, Soldiers with the 1st Cav were sent to investigate reports that terrorists had rigged two schools in Northern Baghdad with explosives. Extremists were able to destroy one school and rig a second with explosives:

CAMP TAJI, Iraq — Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers, responding to a tip, were investigating two schools that were rigged to explode in a rural area in northern Baghdad when one exploded Aug. 16.

Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, were investigating a tip gathered by Iraqi Army forces operating in the Al Awad area of northern Baghdad and conducting a deliberate clearing operation of one school when a second school nearby exploded.

The unit then started receiving small arms fire from insurgents in a tree line across the road from the school. The Soldiers then called in attack aviation to clear the tree line and the small arms fire ceased.

The Soldiers then proceeded to clear the school damaged by the explosion. There they found containers filled with high explosives planted in several areas around the school, some of which had not exploded. The school was assessed to be a complete loss.

The second school which the soldiers originally were trying to clear was also rigged with multiple containers of high explosives, but none of them exploded. All of the
unexploded containers were removed and destroyed by an explosive ordnance disposal team.

Al Qaeda extremists operating in the area are responsible for the emplacement of the explosives, according to Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak, deputy commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. He said extremists are attempting to disrupt Coalition efforts to facilitate the restoration of services and stop insurgent activities in the area.

This incident marks the fourth and fifth time insurgents have targeted schools in the
northern Baghdad area this year.

“This is a testimony of how little the Al-Qeada cares about the citizens of Iraq. They provide nothing of value to the Iraqi people,” Andrysiak said. “Al Qaeda is fearful of the largest reconciliation effort in Baghdad spreading to this area, but they haven’t
changed their tactics. They kill and destroy. We secure, rebuild and provide hope.”

Al Qaeda does not fight for the people of Iraq they are there simply to cause chaos and create a sense of fear and forboding in the populace, along with creating sensational headlines around the world in an effort to sway puplic opinion. Unfortunately the Western media plays into their hand and the Democratic leadership in this country follows suit, like the good little "useful idiots" they are.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated, these acts of cowardice are the dying gasps of the movement as it seeks to sway public opinion one last time in an effort to gain them some breithign room so they can regroup. We can not allow this to happen and we must continue to pursue them with all means possible.