News and Personal dispatches from the front lines.
In their own words:
LT Nixon: Iraq News (7 May) - The Good:18 militia fighters have been killed in more Sadr City fighting, and Iraqi Security Forces have raided a hospital that was treating militia combatants. This resulted in the arrest of 42 Iraqi Police and 35 hospital workers. The Iraqi presidency council has stressed for militia fighters to turn in their weapons per the Political Council for National Security plan which was developed last month as a way to end the humanitarian suffering in Sadr City. And a strange article about golfing in the Green Zone. I'm sure this won't stir up resentment from front-line soldiers about their REMF counterparts (note: LT Nixon hates golf)... The Bad: More outstanding reporting from Tina Susman of the LA Times. (READ MORE)
Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal: (Video) Making the Kids Smile - PFC Das Boot attempts to fly a kite in the Iraqi breeze. Hilarity ensues. Narration - and tough NCO-style mentorship - by SSG Boondock. (Watch Video)
Milblogging.com: Bad Voodoo Finishes Final Mission - You'll be happy to know we've completed our final mission just a few days ago. All Bad Voodoo soldiers are safe and off the road. Pictured above is myself and "SGT Q" (a fellow Bad Voodoo Team Leader) posing for a photo during our last mission. We both happened to serve in Afghanistan at the same time from 2004-2005, but we were in different units. "SGT Q" was actually a member of the 25th Infantry Division. I served with the Virginia National Guard during my tour, but I was also awarded the Tropic Lightning during my Combat Patch ceremony. (READ MORE)
Tina Susman: And then there were two... - The third of the five extra brigades sent to Iraq in early 2007 to quell violence is on its way home, more than a year after deploying in an insurgent stronghold southeast of Baghdad. The 3,500 troops from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division are returning to their base in Fort Benning, Ga., leaving just two of the extra brigades left on the ground here, the military announced this week. By the end of July, all five of the brigades are due to be gone, which will leave roughly 130,000 U.S. forces on the ground in Iraq. (READ MORE)
Fearless 1st Marines’ blog: Iraqi Police train with Marines - HABBANIYAH, Iraq (May 4, 2008) – Once a month, the Iraqi police are paid for their everyday services. Marines of the Habbaniyah Police Transition Team (PTT), who work with the Iraqi Police daily, ensured their hard work over the last 30 days was rewarded with a much deserved payday May 3. “They put in their time every day and look forward to getting paid,” said Lance Cpl. Adam C. Wemhoner, a gunner for the Habbaniyah PTT team, attached to 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 1. “They’re doing a good job working with us and they are catching on to what we teach them pretty good.” (READ MORE)
Fearless 1st Marines’ blog: Heroic last stand, Marines thwart enemy attack - RAMADI, IRAQ (April 29, 2008) – It was a typical quiet morning on April 22, with the temperature intensifying as a bright orange sun emerged high from the horizon. Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, a rifleman with 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, and Cpl. Jonathan T. Yale, a rifleman with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, RCT-1, were standing post, just as they’ve done numerous times before. During a standard length watch in a small checkpoint protected by concrete barriers where they overlooked the small gravel road, lined with palm trees leading to their entry control point. (READ MORE)
The Angry American: Books for Soldiers needs our help - I was introduced to Books for Soldiers, by my late friend Sgt Joel Murray. He told me about the website and I went there and put in a request and shortly after I had the exact book that I wanted. Your only allowed one request per month and you can get a video game, or book, or movie. What I got in the end was some awesome support. I actually had a couple volunteers call me their own basically. They would both send me packages on a regular basis and I got a Peanuts movie for every holiday!!! Which is really awesome since I'm a huge Peanuts fan. When the unthinkable happened on Sept 04, 2006 the volunteers from this organization flocked to our sides and flooded us with letters of Sorrow, and Support it was really awesome. BFS does not only help out the Soldiers in the box but also those who are severely wounded in action and in one of the Army hospitals between here and Germany. (READ MORE)
David Axe: Army’s Virtual “Front Porch” Connects Leaders - It was a decades-old Army tradition that junior officers would eat lunch together every day in Army-run dining halls. There they would trade ideas they’d picked up in their training. But in the last decade, to save money, contractors such as Kellogg, Brown and Root have replaced the old dining halls with civilian-style cafeterias, some boasting big-screen TVs. The officers stopped gathering … and stopped talking. That had the effect of isolating young leaders, preventing them from getting answers to life-and-death questions — and from sharing their own answers they might have learned the hard way. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: US, Iraqi forces kill 18 Mahdi fighters during clashes, raids in Baghdad - US and Iraqi troops continue to battle Mahdi Army fighters in Sadr City and greater Baghdad. Eighteen Mahdi Army fighters were killed and 11 captured during raids and attacks, while the Iraqi government arrested 42 policemen for colluding with "outlaws" and arrested 35 hospital workers for treating Mahdi Army fighters. Latest fighting in Baghdad: The Mahdi Army continues to attack US and Iraqi forces as they erect the barrier on Qods Street, which divides the southern third from the northern portion of Sadr City. US and Iraqi troops responded, killing 18 Mahdi Army fighters and capturing 11 throughout Baghdad. (READ MORE)
Bill Ardolino: 3-89 Cavalry conducts operations targeting Mahdi Special Groups in northern Rusafa - The US soldiers and Iraqi police living at Joint Security Station Al Qanat at the Northeastern edge of Baghdad’s Rusafa district have “a front row seat” to the fight taking place in Sadr City. As US and Iraqi Army forces clash with the Mahdi Army, hissing RPGs and small arms fire periodically crackle during the day and are punctuated by occasional orange explosions and red tracers streaking out of the Sadr City skyline at night. Two to four Apache attack helicopters constantly prowl the airspace over the battlefield, randomly popping flares as they search for targets. The characteristic whoosh and boom of a hellfire missile sounds when they find one. But although JSS al Qanat is only 200 meters from the Route Pluto, the main thoroughfare that marks the border to Sadr City, the fighting has not significantly spilled over into the northern part of the Rusafa District. (READ MORE)
Michael Yon: In Iraq, a storm before the calm - April saw 49 U.S. casualties in Iraq, the highest total in seven months. Does this mean, as some insist, that the enormous progress we have made since the start of the military surge is being lost? As one who has spent nearly two years with American soldiers and Marines and British Army troops in Iraq - having returned from my last trip a month ago - here's my short answer: no. We are taking more casualties now, just as we did in the first part of 2007, because we have taken up the next crucial challenge of this war: confronting the Shia militias. (READ MORE)
Castle Argghhh!: Update 3 from the Castle's Sailor-in-Iraq, Joe Honan. - You know how I said last update that I worked well with the General’s staff on the sheep feed program? Well because of my sins I have been given a second “hat” as the Multinational Forces West Civil Affairs Office Agriculture representative. That’s right, they asked me stay on the General’s staff to do farming. The good news is that I’ve managed to extend myself past sheep and now have visited poultry and fish farms. Its up to the big leagues once I get to see the dairy cows. To help, the Marines gave me a Gunnery Sergeant. A good man typical of the breed. We met and he said “Sir I don’t know why I have this job, I wanted to run convoys but they said since I grew up on a farm in Michigan I had to do agriculture. I didn’t learn anything as a kid, I just did heavy labor, and spent most of time trying to get out of that!” (READ MORE)
Coming back:
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: Hard to do nothing - There were days over this past year when I would dream of getting a few days of having nothing to do. Now that that dream is a reality, it's not all it's cracked up to be. Here in Camp Virginia, Kuwait, there is nothing for us to do but wait until our flight takes us to Fort Riley, Kansas, later this week. That means we have time on our hands and few ways to fill it. Once you've napped until you have caught up on your sleep, gone to the chow hall at the prescribed times to eat and walked through the PX a few dozen times, you start struggling to find something else. (READ MORE)
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: The light of Kuwait - One of the first things you notice about Kuwait is how modern it appears. Actually, the first thing you notice is the heat and the brightness of the sun here. Once your eyes adjust, then you notice how modern this country is. It has good paved roads and other infrastructure. There are modern buildings, clean cities and shops and stores that look like shops and stores are supposed to look. The people here have adopted Western-style clothes and other images familiar to Americans. It is the fourth richest country per capita in the world. Somehow, this national has reconciled its primarily Islamic principles with a culture full of modernity. Islam is the official state religion, but the country allows for other faiths. (READ MORE)
David Wood: Next assignment - RAMSTEIN AIR FORCE BASE, Germany // I'm already so far out of Afghanistan's sand and dust that when I walk through this squeaky clean, Euro-modern cathedral of glass and polished aluminum, my boots leave footprints. Like the Peanuts character, Pig Pen. My six-week embed with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit is over. Coming home over the past three days, I've slept on the floor of a C-130, from Kandahar to Manas air base in Krygystan. Then on to Germany, bedded down on the floor of a C-17, beneath a strapped-down CH-47 helicopter being hauled home for repairs. And last night, on a USO couch here at Ramstein. One more leg, and I'm home. What is not over is hard reporting on issues that directly affect the Marines of 1/6 and the rest of the 24th MEU. (READ MORE)
Heading out:
Big Tobacco: Support the War, Hire a Contractor - I wrote this while smoking a Fincks Mexican Fiesta I’m operationally paused. I’m home now and will stay here until some time in June. What’s funny is that I already feel on edge, as if this isn’t the right place for me. I came back to my almost 2-year old who is talking up a storm, and an almost 5-year old who is used to having Mommy around. Dinner with my extended family last night was excruciating. The final straw was my little brother who asked me what an IED was. I told him that he should have paid attention in health class. Dammit, Little Tobacco, put down the rolling papers and pick up a newspaper! You are 29 years old for God’s sake. But the thing that vexed me the most was coming back to bills. (READ MORE)
News from the Front:
Iraq:
Fallujah's first central sewage treatment facility under construction - FALLUJAH, Iraq – The first central sewage treatment facility here will provide water treatment for 200,000 area residents. The $85 million project is the largest of its kind in al-Anbar Province and is 45 percent complete. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is directing construction of the facility, projects that it will be sufficient for all of Fallujah’s wastewater treatment needs when the city integrates its own collection system. It is projected that the facility will be able to accommodate the city’s needs until the year 2025. (READ MORE)
Khor al-Zubair Tech Center rehabilitation completed - BASRAH, Iraq – Rehabilitation of a vocational technical center in southern Basrah Province was recently completed. Basic infrastructure of the Khor al-Zubair vocational technical center in al-Zubair district was completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The $1.5 million project renovated two facilities comprising more than 24 workshops. "The completed rehab project ... will promote vocational education for all Iraqis," said James Hodges, the chief construction representative with the Basrah Area Office, Gulf Region South district. (READ MORE)
Coalition forces bring aid to village - BAGHDAD – Coalition forces conducted a medical assistance mission in Byda Village, near al-Kut, Iraq, May 2. The mission is part of an outreach program to provide for outlying villages in Wasit Province that have seen little or no Coalition presence, said Lt. Col. Rob Jones, the Wasit Provincial Reconstruction deputy team leader. American, Salvadoran, Georgian and Lithuanian troops took part in the mission to perform medical and dental checks and distribute food, vitamins and hygiene supplies. (READ MORE)
ePRT facilitates Mada’in Ag Expo - BAGHDAD – More than 1,500 Iraqi farmers attended the Mada’in Agricultural Technology Exposition in al-Wahida, Iraq, April 26-27. The expo resulted from efforts by the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team, attached to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, to revitalize farming and agribusiness. The 3rd HBCT ePRT leaders emphasized agricultural initiatives in the qada to provide long-term economic stability in the primarily agrarian district east of Baghdad. (READ MORE)
Iraqi Special Operations Forces detain seven Special Groups criminals in Sadr City - BAGHDAD – Iraqi Special Operations Forces, advised by U.S. Special Forces, detained seven suspected Special Groups criminals in and around the Sadr City area of Baghdad, May 6. The Special Groups network in the area is reportedly responsible for coordinating the supply of explosively formed penetrators into Baghdad and attacking Coalition and Iraqi Security force vehicles with EFPs and small arms fire. Special Groups are also linked to firing rockets into the International Zone. (READ MORE)
Iraqi Army detains mid-level al-Qaeda in Iraq leader in Kirkuk province; detain six other suspected terrorists - BAGHDAD – Iraqi Army, advised by U.S. Special Forces, detained a suspected midlevel al-Qaeda in Iraq leader and detained six others in Kirkuk province, May 5. Soldiers with 15th Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division conducted an operation in Kirkuk province, approximately 150 miles north of Baghdad, to detain the suspected AQI leader and disrupt AQI activities in Kirkuk province. (READ MORE)
Iraqi Army Scouts discover three AQI weapons cache sites in al-Karmah - BAGHDAD – Iraqi Army Scouts with 1st IA Division, advised by U.S. Special Operations Forces, discovered three weapons cache sites in al-Karmah, approximately 27 miles northwest of Baghdad, on May 6. IA conducted an operation in the area to find and recover al-Qaeda in Iraq weapons caches in the area. Three separate caches were found containing a total of 24,000 .50 caliber rounds, 50 mortar rounds of various sizes, and 2,000 gallons of nitric acid, a substance used to make homemade explosives. (READ MORE)
Two key suspects captured in Musayyib operations - FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq – Coalition forces captured five detainees during Operation Berlin May 4 in the Musayyib area, 55 km south of Baghdad. Two of the detainees are key suspect targets believed to be involved with weapons trafficking, kidnapping, murder, improvised explosive device making and sniper attacks against innocent civilians and Coalition forces. The two simultaneous operations were executed in two different locations. (READ MORE)
Insurgent attack kills 3, wounds 7 in Salah ad Din - TIKRIT, Iraq – A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated in front of a building in Tikrit, Salah ad Din Province, killing three Iraqi civilians and wounding seven others May 6. All were taken to the Tikrit Teaching Hospital. (READ MORE)
Criminals injure Iraqis in rocket attack (Baghdad) - BAGHDAD – Criminals in northeastern Baghdad fired three 122 mm rockets into central Baghdad injuring seven Iraqi citizens and two Iraqi Policemen at approximately 12:45 p.m. May 6. In addition, the attack caused damage to a local park, destroying playground equipment and a park bench. An Iraqi Police station was also damaged by a rocket that failed to detonate. (READ MORE)
IED attack targets ESU, civilians in Kirkuk City - KIRKUK, Iraq – An improvised explosive device struck a Kirkuk Emergency Services Unit of its Police Force at approximately 9 a.m., in Kirkuk, Iraq, May 5. One member of the ESU was killed and seven were wounded in the attack. The Explosive Ordnance Detachment and Quick Reactionary Force immediately responded to the scene of the attack, which occurred on a popular thorough-fare frequented by morning commuters. (READ MORE)
3 Local National women killed, 2 wounded in AQI attack (Ninewah) - TIKRIT, Iraq – Three local Iraqi women were killed and two were wounded in an attack in Ninewah Province May 5. The Iraqi Police believe the attack was caused by al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorists in the area. The wounded women were taken to a local hospital. (READ MORE)
Iraqi, Coalition Leaders Discuss Piledriver Progress - CAMP STRIKER — Iraqi Army, Coalition, tribal and Government of Iraq leaders met at the IA Compound in Mahmudiyah May 1 to discuss the progress of Operation Marne Piledriver. Marne Piledriver, a capacity-building operation, kicked-off April 15 with an air assault and dismounted patrols throughout the Mahmudiyah Qada, aimed at disbanding any remaining al-Qaeda threat in the area. (READ MORE)
Australian, U.S. Army Join Forces with Dhi Qar PRT to Teach ISF International Law - CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER — Members of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, Australian Army and Italian Provincial Reconstruction Team of Dhi Qar Province teamed up to train members of the Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police and 4th Military Academy on international law and human rights recently. A group of 18 Iraqi servicemembers attended a 10-day course to learn basic principles of the Law of Armed Conflict, human rights, police ethics, and their legal obligations and responsibilities while conducting operations. (READ MORE)
14th Iraqi Army Learns Biometric Database - BASRA — Soldiers with the 14th Division, Iraqi Army learned how to operate a biometric cross-match database at their headquarters in Basra, Iraq, recently. “The biometric cross-match database will be able to identify individuals with a criminal record through voice, fingerprints, and eye scans,” said Adnan, the senior database supervisor. “Sixteen soldiers, including officers and non-commissioned officers, are being trained to operate this equipment.” (READ MORE)
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