Good News From Iraq

Iraqi police re-open station
Story by Spc. L.C. Campbell,138th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment MOSUL, Iraq - Iraqi police conducted a ribbon cutting ceremony to re-open their northeast police station in Mosul. The station had been closed since 2003 because anti-Iraqi forces attacked and destroyed the station.

The original station was so badly destroyed the local Iraqi police had to move operations down the street to an outpost, while the original station was being rebuilt.

“Back in 2003, the Iraqi Police were trying to develop. The AIF went through and ruined the police station, and scared the IPs into quitting,” said 1st Lt. Michael McCasland, battalion assistant effects coordinator, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

“We opened a station down the street called NE2 Combat Outpost back in December 7, 2005 and initiated a projected to build a new station were the old one was,” he said.

According to McCasland, they contracted the work to a local Iraqi construction company that was responsible for excavating the site and rebuilding the new station.

“The opening ceremony marked a re-opening of a police station that was once destroyed and now fully manned with police officers who came back to work,” said McCasland.

“There are several problems in that area and a lot of AIF activity that goes on, so I think it’s good for residents living in this neighborhood that these officers came back. It shows the insurgents that they may have degraded the IP capabilities for a period of time, but they can not actually destroy what the Iraqis want to have and build,” he said.

McCasland said, the Iraqi police were under so much control from Saddam Hussein so they are going through a lot of trial and error right now, but they are working through their problems and have come along way.

Rebuilding a police force is not an easy step for Coalition forces and it will not happen immediately. It will take time to train and teach these officers to be the first line defense against an insurgency that would like to see them fail.

“They eventually have to be responsible for their own country and city,” said McCasland. “They made a lot of great strides, considering last year there were no Iraqi police, because AIF had scared them into quitting. The key now is for them to create a better relationship with the Iraqi army, and they have used a tremendous amount of effort to make that relationship better.”

Release A060615b
Coalition forces foil kidnapping
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition forces in east Baghdad conducting combined curfew enforcement, stopped two vehicles June 13 and seven Iraqi citizens jumped out claiming to have been kidnapped.

Soldiers from Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s Company E, 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, were conducting curfew enforcement at approximately 11 p.m. when they spotted two vehicles carrying the suspected kidnappers and their victims.

During a search of the suspected kidnappers, Soldiers discovered three pistols.

Following the search and questioning, the Soldiers detained four suspected kidnappers and took the seven victims to a nearby forward operating base. The kidnapping victims had been seized on 10 June near Namiyah where they work for an engineering firm. They were released after providing sworn statements.

Release A060615c
Iraqi security forces capture terrorist leader in Karbala
BALAD, Iraq – Iraqi forces conducted an early morning ground assault raid in Karbala June 15 and captured a high-ranking terrorist network commander without firing a shot.

Iraqi Army Soldiers, assisted by Coalition advisers, captured Sheik Aqeel. Aqeel commands a Karbala terrorist network and is wanted for assassinating Iraqi citizens and planning and ordering attacks against Iraqi and Coalition forces. The terrorist network commander provides financial support to subordinate leaders and supplies them with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The IEDs supplied by Aqeel are linked to the deaths of at least six Coalition Soldiers in 2005 and the deaths of a Coalition Soldier and an interpreter on June 8.

Aqeel is also linked to a 2005 attack on the al-Mukhayim Iraqi Police station and the killing of Iraqi intelligence officers in Karbala.

Iraqi forces captured one other terrorist during the raid and seized a substantial weapons cache.

No Iraqi or Coalition forces were killed or wounded during this operation.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)—American and Iraqi forces have carried out 452 raids since last week’s killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and 104 insurgents were killed during those actions, the U.S. military said Thursday.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the raids were carried out nationwide and led to the discovery of 28 significant arms caches. He said 255 of the raids were joint operations, while 143 were carried out by Iraqi forces alone. The raids also resulted in the captures of 759 “anti-Iraqi elements." - Jihad denied mutherfuckers.

Release A060617b
Iraqi forces capture kidnapper in Baghdad
BALAD, Iraq – Iraqi Army forces conducted an early morning raid on June 12 in western Baghdad to capture an individual linked to kidnapping activities.

While Coalition Force advisers looked on, Iraqi forces captured a kidnapper who works for insurgents in the Abu-Gharib area of Baghdad .

His kidnapping activities fund terrorist activities including vehicle borne improvised explosive device, or VBIED attacks, and the money also provides ammunition and weapons for attacks against Iraqi citizens and Iraqi Security and Coalition Forces.

Iraqi forces also seized three AK-47 assault rifles and one pistol.

No Iraqi or Coalition Forces were killed or wounded during this operation.

Some good news from Chechnya, another terrorist bites the dust.

The death of Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, a former Islamic court judge who took over the Chechen resistance after the slaying of former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, marks a blow to insurgents trying to destabilize southern Russia and establish independence for Chechnya. ...

Sadulayev and military commander Shamil Basayev jointly had led what many believe to be a dwindling number of separatist forces in a republic that increasingly is coming under Moscow's control, even as violence has spread to adjoining republics. ...

In recent months, he had called for expanding the Chechen conflict into a "decolonization" of Muslim-dominated adjoining regions and adoption of a constitution in conformance with Islamic Shariah law.

Kadyrov said police found Sadulayev in his hometown of Argun on a tip that he was planning an attack timed for next month's Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg.

"Sadulayev had recently been outside the Chechen republic, but a week ago he arrived in Chechnya to organize a large-scale terrorist attack in Argun. We received information on this for 1,500 rubles [about $55], conducted an operation, and now Sadulayev is dead," Kadyrov said. - Owned indeed!

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