News and Personal dispatches from the front lines.
In their own words:
IraqPundit: Bin Laden's PR Successes - If you have been wondering why Osama Bin Laden has felt empowered recently, I think I have an answer. As you know, the terrorist leader has issued more messages this year than he had done earlier. This apparent display of bravado means he feels encouraged about how well his side is doing; he's releasing more tapes to his followers to maintain the momentum. Why? One possible explanation is that Bin Laden is following the U.S. newspapers, who stroke his ego fairly regularly. Take for example today's LAT. The paper's unsigned editorial starts: "As President Bush jetted home from the Middle East on Sunday, Osama bin Laden stuck his bloody thumb in the president's eye yet again, releasing his second recorded message in three days." (READ MORE)
Omar: Iraq Hunts Al-Qaeda in Its Last Urban Stronghold - Although we haven’t written anything about the operation in Mosul which started a week ago, I’ve been closely following its developments. The reason why I waited is that we had often heard about a new operation, which would then turn out to be just a rumor. Anyway, the operation this time has actually started, and the arrival of Maliki and his defense and interior ministers in the city leaves no room for doubt about the seriousness of the government in seeing to the plan’s success. The interesting thing about the operation is that it’s been suspiciously quiet, to the extent that one wonders if there’s actually any operation going on. In fact, Mosul has seen the calmest eight days of the last five years. (READ MORE)
Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal: Triple Digits - As spring limps into summer, a new contender with an old face ascends to challenge the concept of war for peace for complete dominance of Iraq’s ever-malleable now. It reigns with small flares of absolute tyranny, doling out punishment to the masses and the elite equally in spells of burning subjugation. What this aspirant lacks in constant staying power, it makes up for in the promise of consistent rebirth every dawn, rising like a digital Jesus stuck on repeat. I speak, of course, of the big ball of orange suck the Tibetan monks and icebergs commonly refer to as the sun. And yes, this will be a very elaborate, very obnoxious, and very imagery-laced, vocabulacious way to say that it is fucking hot now. Here’s to the wordgasm. (READ MORE)
LT Nixon: Iraq News (21 May) - The Good: So far so good with the Iraqi-led Operation Salam (Operation Peace) that is taking place in the Sadr City district of Baghdad. Michael Gordon of the NY Times has the details from a tactical perspective, the LA Times has the perspective from the district's citizens (they were mostly welcoming of the Iraqi Army), and AFP states that the Sadrists in Najaf have okayed the operation. Iraqi media reports that 100 IEDs have been taken off the streets of Sadr City, and one of the concerns of the operation was that most of the main thoroughfares had been mined by the Mahdi Army. The trial of Tariq Aziz continues as he stands accused of ordering the execution of Iraqi merchants during the Saddam-regime. (READ MORE)
Major John: Getting a bit tired - I noticed yesterday that I had reached the point where a couple of good meals (at the British cookhouse at BAS) and a good night's sleep is not enough to put me back to 100%. I'm not exactly exhausted or burned out just yet - but I have been before (last deployment). So I know the warning signs. I am going to try to scale back a bit - which is difficult as I am just about to watch everyone else here leave and replacements come in...Anyhoo - posting may be light for a little while. Unless events warrant otherwise. (READ MORE)
Fun With Hand Grenades: 18 days of leave went pretty quick - I'm sick of saying goodbye, even to my cat. Fuck you, Iraq. FUCK. YOU. 10 months and counting. (READ MORE)
Cheese's Milblog: Up to this point - I think I have done a pretty good job of restraining myself from ranting on here. This is a medium for me to share my experiences, not my complaints...however, I feel like you all should know, to an extent, the level of frustration felt by a lot of the soldiers here. It is, unfortunately, a part of the Kabul experience. I will preface this by pointing to my previous posts. I think it is apparent that I enjoy working with the Afghan people and I truly feel that I am doing some good here. That being said, there truly are people in Afghanistan who wish us harm, and I feel as if we are doing less to seek them out than we are doing to protect ourselves from people within our own FOB. As you may have heard, a couple of Humvees went missing from my area of operations. We all assumed that this would not lead to anything good. That turned out to be an understatement. (READ MORE)
David Wood: 1/6 Marines: In Memoriam, Cpl. William J. Cooper - Cpl. Willliam J. Cooper, a 22-year-old rifleman from Eupora, Miss., was killed yesterday during combat operations in southern Afghanistan, according to a Marine Corps statement. He served in Weapons Company of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines. No other details were available. This will be hard felt in Weapons Co., within the battalion and back home at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The Marines have become extraordinarily close during their time in Afghanistan, and there is a special bond among the Marines who served previous combat tours in Iraq, as Cooper had. Cooper's death is hardest, of course, on his parents and two brothers at home. My deepest sympathies to them. (READ MORE)
David Wood: Marines continue the fight in Garmsir - The Marines' operation, code-named Asada Wosa, was originally scheduled to last about four days, enough time to seize a strategic road and arms smuggling route that runs north from the Pakistan border through southern Helmand Province. The region, where the Taliban had re-established its influence over the past few years, is a major poppy-producing area and provides over 90 percent of the world's raw opium. The 24th MEU is maintaining a news blackout during the operation. But the Marines of 1/6 are reported to be in high spirits despite the extended operation and a subsequent shortage of cigarettes. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Iraqi Army presses into Sadr City - The Iraqi security forces have entered the northern regions of Sadr City on Tuesday. Dubbed Operation Salam, or Peace, thousands of Iraqi troops moved into the Mahdi Army stronghold just before dawn and took up positions at strategic points throughout Sadr City. "Operation Salam is going in accordance with well-planned and organized steps," Major General Qassem Atta told Voices of Iraq. Iraqi troops are tasked with securing the neighborhoods, arresting wanted individuals, and searching and seizing unlicensed weapons. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: Afghanistan: Graphing the violence - week 20 - NATO and Afghan forces have stepped up offensive operations in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, and Uruzgan as the US Marines have provided additional manpower to target Taliban strongholds. Coalition forces hope to blunt the yearly "Taliban offensive." Data provided to The Long War Journal by Vigilant Strategic Services Afghanistan (VSSA) shows that the attacks by the Taliban and “Anti-Government Elements” such as Gulbaddin Hekmatyer’s Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin and other allied groups have increased over the past several weeks as the poppy harvest season has ended. The Taliban now has a pool of unemployed harvesters to serve as recruit. (READ MORE)
Kristen Noel: 2/7 - WASHINGTON, May 19, 2008 – The 1st Marine Division’s 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines’ is focusing on Afghan people, not on fighting terrorists, the battalion commander said May 16. ‘What’s unique about our mission is that we’re doing a police training and mentoring mission, as opposed to coming in here kinetically like a lot of our past exploits have been, especially in Iraq,’ Marine Corps Lt. Col. Richard Hall told online journalists and ‘bloggers’ in a teleconference. (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio: US military killed Mahdi Army commander Arkan Hasnawi in May 3 strike - The US military killed a senior member of the Mahdi Army, according US and Mahdi Army sources. Arkan Hasnawi, a senior lieutenant of the Mahdi Army commander in Sadr City, was killed in a guided rocket strike in Sadr City on March 3. The news of Hasnawi's death comes as details emerge on the senior leadership of the Mahdi Army in Baghdad and the blurring of the lines between Sadr's militia and the Special Groups. Hasnawi was among several senior Mahdi Army leaders killed or wounded in the GLMRS strike on a Mahdi Army command and control center that was placed next to the Sadr Hospital inside Sadr City, according to a report in The Washington Post. (READ MORE)
Talisman Gate: Lying Low in Mosul - Here’s the western media’s brand-new dodge when trying to explain why the Iraqi Army is winning across the country: the insurgents, whether Sunni or Shia, are lying low. Never mind that hundreds of insurgents are being killed and captured. No, according to the likes of TIME’s Mark Kukis (...who claims to be reporting from Iraq but could be up to something else in NYC), it’s “all a ploy, and any day now the real Iraq, which we refuse to report on, will unravel to fit to our imagined Iraq.” But it seems that journalists too are adopting these alleged insurgent tactics: the Iraqi Army’s operation in Mosul is basically being ignored. In a sense, reporters are also lying low for fear that their false narratives would unravel. (READ MORE) (H/T Mudville Gazette)
48th Combat Support Hospital - FOB Salerno: Time passes by... - I must admit...time is going by a lot faster now than it once was. I cannot believe that it has been almost 2 weeks since my last post on here. That is truly amazing. I am trying to get some pictures to post on here of today's events. No, no major trauma or anything like that....we did have to call for backup though. Are you worried? Do you think I'm about to tell you of some major fight that we were in? WRONG!!!! There was a 4 ft. monitor lizard in one of our buildings!!!! Yep, I've seen pictures of him and even a video tape of them capturing him. Ok, so maybe it sounded a little more fierce when I first started telling the story, but that thing was big. (READ MORE)
Back but still writing:
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: Leaving alone well enough - Has it been a week already? After a year of counting the weeks as they crept by, this first week home has zipped past me. I will admit I was concerned I would get home and feel a letdown over not having anything to do. The opposite has been the case. It has been difficult to find the time to do much of anything, including this blog. I never even turned the computer on yesterday. Other than family movie night on Friday, I have not sat down and watched television. I'm fine with the pace of things. The first couple of days were spent shopping for some new clothes for me and a new car. (If you're wondering, I ended up with the Alabama-made Hyundai Sonata with a shopping experience that was absolutely delightful at Serra Hyundai in Center Point.) (READ MORE)
From the home front:
Lou Michel: Perspective - Today is the first I've heard from Judy since May 10. Internet access from her base has been a problem since she's been there. Every few days I'll send word, not knowing whether that word is reaching her. I try to keep her up on the doings around the house and with the kids. The boring, mundane stuff you might talk about at the dinner table. In my latest post to her I told her we had the swimming pool opened earlier in the week and complained that the guys did a lousy job. After writing that, I had to laugh at myself. Here I am whining about a dirty pool filter and a solar cover that wasn't installed to a woman working 16-18 hours a day, seven days a week, with a culture of people for whom every day is a very real struggle just to remain alive. (READ MORE)
News from the Front:
Iraq:
A scarred district gives a wary welcome to Iraqi soldiers - Iraqi soldiers pushed deep into Sadr City without resistance today, and I went to see how the operation was going. I entered from the west side, near the 3-mile-long wall erected by U.S. forces to prevent militiamen loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr from using the southern portion of the vast Baghdad slum to shell the Green Zone and other targets. As I moved into the neighborhood, the destruction from weeks of fighting was horrible. Most of the shops and kiosks have been damaged. Doors are knocked off their hinges. Windows are shattered. The walls are riddled with bullet holes. Some buildings are blown apart by missile fire. (READ MORE)
On the Front Lines in Sadr City - On May 10, the photographer Robert Nickelsberg embedded with American troops from the Third Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division, in Baghdad’s Sadr City, where the American-backed Iraqi Army and the Mahdi Army militia loyal to Moktada al-Sadr had been fighting for more than a month. The day his embed started, there was news of progress: The Iraqi government reached a truce with the Mahdi militia in a deal brokered with help from Iran. But the fighting did not immediately stop. (READ MORE)
MND-B Soldiers stop IED emplacers in New Baghdad - BAGHDAD, Iraq – Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers killed 11 criminals in an ongoing operation in eastern Baghdad, May 21. MND-B Soldiers observed armed criminals with AK-47 assault rifles, exiting a sports utility vehicle in the New Baghdad security district. The individual scanned the area and motioned another vehicle forward. Soldiers observed the criminals emplacing an improvised-explosive device. They engaged the suspects with small-arms fire, killing one. (READ MORE)
New Sons of Iraq stand up to help secure their communities - KIRKUK, Iraq – Approximately 75 new Sons of Iraq members witnessed their leaders sign three Sons of Iraq contracts in a signing ceremony in the Ta’mim Province May 19. Iraqi Security Forces, Coalition forces, local tribal leaders and Sons of Iraq members were on hand to witness the signing of three SOI contracts, representing more than 600 hundred SOI members, at the Jawalla Middle School in Rashaad, 48 kilometers south of Kirkuk. (READ MORE)
Coalition forces detain suspected AQI leader in Diwaniyah Peninsula area - BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces detained two individuals May 17 during operations in the Diwaniyah Peninsula area, approximately 40 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. One of the detainees is a key suspected AQI leader who has reportedly been involved in kidnapping civilians for ransom and using the money to fund terrorist operations. He is also accused of facilitating improvised explosive device attacks on Coalition forces. (READ MORE)
Iraqi Special Operations Forces detain terrorist in Baghdad - BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi Special Operations Forces detained a terrorist in the al-Ghazaliya area of Baghdad May 20. ISOF conducted the operation to detain an al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist suspected of murdering local Iraqis, including a 24-year-old woman Dec. 10, 2007. “AQI in this area of Baghdad is responsible for numerous kidnappings and murders of local Iraqi citizens,” said Col. Bill Buckner, a Multi-National Corps - Iraq spokesman. “The ISOF are currently conducting operations to help provide security and stability to the Iraqi people.” (READ MORE)
Criminals kill four Iraqi citizens, injure six - BAGHDAD, Iraq – Criminals killed four Iraqi citizens and injured six others in separate attacks in Baghdad May 20. At approximately 8:30 a.m., criminals fired a mortar round into the Karadah district striking a local vehicle. The attack killed three Iraqi civilians. Two Iraqi civilians were also wounded in the attack. In Adhamiyah, at approximately 8:30 a.m., a criminal detonated an improvised explosive device, striking an Iraqi civilian vehicle. One Iraqi citizen was killed and four were injured in the attack. (READ MORE)
Operation Restore Peace VI offers alternative to former fighters in Hawijah, Iraq - HAWIJAH, Iraq – Sheiks, villagers and Coalition force members attended a reconciliation meeting held at Forward Operating Base McHenry May 18. The sixth meeting under Operation Restore Peace afforded a pathway toward reconciliation to combatants who have been linked to attacks against Iraqi Security Forces and Coalition forces. The program, citizens call Musalaha, has been credited along with the Sons of Iraq program, with more than a 90 percent decrease in violent attacks against both forces and civilians in the Hawijah district. (READ MORE)
Citizens lead Soldiers to three caches (Kalsu) - FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq – Local citizens led Multi-Nation Division – Center Soldiers to three separate caches locations, May 16. The area was once a haven for criminal activity. “Local Iraqis are tired of the violence and fighting and have come to see the benefits of assisting the Coalition and (Iraqi Army’s) efforts in their community,” said Lt. Col. R.J. Lillibridge, a 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division spokesman. (READ MORE)
80,000th patient receives hearty medical treatment at Zaytun Hospital - CAMP ZAYTUNY, Iraq – Zaytun Hospital reached a medical milestone May 14 by treating its 80,000th Kurdish patient. Since November 2004, the hospital has achieved this goal by using the practice of “sincere medical treatment with love.” On this day, the Zaytun Hospital held a commemoratory event by presenting gifts and flowers to the 80,000th patient, along with 20 other patients. They also wished them a quick recovery under the management of Republic of Korea Col. Park Byoung Ki. (READ MORE)
Speaker of the House Visits Servicemembers at Sather - SATHER AIR BASE — Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer and Reps. Adam Putnam, Howard Berman, Jan Harman, Gary Ackerman, Alcee Hastings and John Larson visited Sather Air Base to visit with deployed members, May 17. Airmen and Soldiers from around the country, from California to Connecticut, gathered to meet the visiting representatives. "We have a variety of opinions on the policy of war in our group," said Ms. Pelosi. "But, we're all in total agreement about the respect, regard and appreciation we have for each and every one of you." (READ MORE)
Marines Assist Ramadi Police Progress - RAMADI — Two years ago, Ramadi's police force was essentially wiped out by a strong insurgency that devastated almost every police station, leaving only a small number of officers on the job and a city considered by officials to be uncontrollable and nicknamed the “wild west.” According to an NBC News article from September 2006, a secret report concluding that the United States military could not defeat the insurgents in al-Anbar province and al-Qaida was rapidly filling the political vacuity. Almost a year ago, the tribal leaders of Ramadi formed the “Al Anbar Awakening Movement” and agreed to work more closely with coalition forces. (READ MORE)
Mortar rounds, rocket found - A local Iraqi gave information leading Iraqi Army Soldiers to a weapons cache in the Sharifat area, 12 miles south of Baghdad, May 18. Soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 25th Brigade, 6th IA Division, uncovered the cache, which contained a 60 mm mortar tube with stand, 52 120 mm mortar rounds, 10 82 mm mortar rounds, 13 60 mm mortar rounds, two Iranian 60 mm mortar rounds, one unidentified rocket, one Russian SPG-9 rocket and more than 80 mortar primers and fuses. The rounds, which were fused and primed, were mostly unserviceable as mortar rounds, but could be used as improvised explosive devices. (READ MORE)
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