Owning The Taliban & Good News From Iraq

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IA Forces, U.S. Special Forces detain al-Qaida Terrorists linked to U.S. casualties
Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO
BAGHDAD – Elements of the 11th Division of the Iraqi Army, with U.S. Special Forces as advisers, detained two terrorists linked to the July 18 improvised explosive device attack that killed four Coalition Force Soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter in eastern Baghdad.

Iraqi Forces detained the two suspected terrorists July 18 during a cordon and search in the vicinity of Antar Square in Baghdad following the IED attack.

The two alleged terrorists are also believed responsible for the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi judge who worked in the International Zone. They are believed to be part of an Al Qaeda affiliated Islamic State in Iraqi cell that operates the Adhamiyah-Baghdad area.

Iraqi Forces also seized three AK-47 rifles and ammunition, as well as Iraqi currency.

No Iraqi Forces or U.S. Special Forces were injured in the operation.

Soldiers search for missing comrades leads to discovery of weapons caches
2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. (LI) PAO
Multi-National Division – Center PAO
QUARGHULLI VILLAGE, Iraq — Coalition Forces discovered three weapons caches in the Quarghulli Village, Iraq, area July 19 as they continued to search for two missing comrades who were abducted by terrorists May 12.

Soldiers from the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., discovered the caches after questioning Iraqis about the whereabouts of the missing Soldiers.

The contents of the caches included a prepared directional blast charge, a rice bag filled with mortar fuses, 10 rocket propelled grenade heads, an 82mm mortar system, a bag of improvised explosive device making materials, four 155mm rounds, an RPG warhead and a bag of pressure plates.

The contents of the caches were destroyed during a controlled detonation conducted by the explosive ordnance team.

The Soldiers continue to search for their missing comrades.

Combined operation nets cache find in Jamia
1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment
Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO
BAGHDAD — Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers uncovered a cache of improvised explosive device-making material during a combined patrol with Iraqi Security Forces in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Jamia July 21.

Soldiers from Company B, 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment and 3rd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division have conducted joint operations throughout Jamia during the past week to reduce the amount of IEDs and homemade explosives in the area. An IED-making cache was uncovered by the clearing team led by 2nd Lt. Mustafa from the 1st Company, 3-5-6th Iraqi Army.

Mustafa’s team located five complete roadside bombs, approximately 200 lbs. of loose homemade explosives and a 155mm artillery shell casing. An explosive ordnance disposal team destroyed the materials to prevent prior to leaving the scene.

Warlords find EFP cache
Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO
BAGHDAD — Multi-National Division – Baghdad troops found a suspected explosively formed penetrator factory in West Rashid District, during an early morning raid July 22.

The “Warlords” of Company A, 1st Battalion, 77th Armored Regiment, part of Task Force 1-18, found a complete EFP, several EFP parts and roughly 300 lbs. of homemade explosives while searching a home. The Soldiers also found a disassembled anti-tank mine, two rocket-propelled grenade sights, 14 copper plates and two video cameras.

An explosive ordnance disposal team was called in to dispose of the munitions.

Coalition Forces kill 9 terrorists, detain 8 and destroy weapons caches
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces killed nine terrorists, detained eight suspected terrorists and uncovered weapons caches during an operation near Muqudadiyah July 20-21.

As Coalition Forces arrived in the area, they received small arms fire from near the Tigris River. The ground forces, acting in self-defense, called in close air support to engage the armed terrorists attacking Coalition Forces. One terrorist was killed in the air strike.

Hours later, four armed terrorists engaged Coalition Forces with small arms fire. Coalition Forces, responding in self-defense against the hostile force, returned fire, killing one terrorist and wounding two suspected terrorists. Enemy forces in the area continued to periodically engage Coalition Forces with small arms fire from nearby palm groves. Coalition Forces, taking fire from the armed terrorists, called in another air strike, killing one armed terrorist and wounding two more suspected terrorists. Terrorists continued to engage the ground forces and Coalition Forces returned fire in self-defense, killing five more terrorists and wounding one suspected terrorist. Coalition Forces medics treated the wounded on scene throughout the morning and transported them to a military medical facility for further treatment.

While on patrol, Coalition Forces discovered a group of terrorists emplacing an improvised explosive device. To disrupt the threat of the terrorists’ explosive weapon, ground forces engaged the group and killed one terrorist.

Throughout the operation, terrorists periodically attacked Coalition Forces using small arms and indirect fire. One mortar attack injured seven Iraqi civilians. Coalition Forces medics treated the injured civilians on scene and one was transported to a military medical facility for further treatment.

The ground forces discovered a terrorist safe house hiding a weapons cache. The safe house contained rifles, ammunition, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and rounds, mortars, military-style assault vests, fuses and camouflage uniforms. An explosives team destroyed the cache on site.

Eight suspected terrorists were detained during the operation. One detainee led the ground forces to a cache of RPGs, a sniper rifle, ammunition, mortars and improvised explosive devices ready for use against Iraqi and Coalition Forces. A search of another detainee’s home uncovered two homemade hand grenades, ammunition, a homemade rocket launcher, IED crush wire, intelligence paperwork about the area and al-Qaeda in Iraq media propaganda.

“We’re targeting al-Qaeda members and leaders no matter where they hide,” said Maj. Marc Young, an MNF-I spokesperson. “These terrorists operate with a system of values totally inconsistent with those of the Iraqi people.”

12 al-Qaeda terrorist facilitators captured
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces captured 12 suspected terrorists during operations targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq foreign terrorists and their logistics networks around Iraq Monday.

In Mosul, Coalition Forces captured an alleged terrorist safe house owner and operator. He and two other individuals were detained for their suspected involvement facilitating the movement of foreign terrorists into and around Iraq for al-Qaeda operations.

Coalition Forces captured another suspected safe house operator south of Baghdad, who is also believed to be a senior al-Qaeda in Iraq adviser. He and two others were detained for their alleged foreign terrorist facilitation and involvement with al-Qaeda in Iraq.

A raid in Yusifiyah netted another suspected foreign terrorist facilitator and two of his associates. Coalition Forces detained them for allegedly supplying foreign terrorist operatives to an al-Qaeda in Iraq cell.

During a raid in Tarmiyah, Coalition Forces captured an individual they targeted for his association to an al-Qaeda in Iraq meeting July 11. Three suspected terrorists, including the targeted individual, were detained for their alleged efforts to arrange meetings between al-Qaeda in Iraq senior leaders.

“Foreign terrorists who come to Iraq to support al-Qaeda will find no safe haven to operate from,” said Maj. Marc Young, an MNF-I spokesperson. “We will not tolerate terrorists’ indiscriminate attacks against innocent Iraqis.”

Truck Bomb destroyed during Marne Avalanche
KALSU, Iraq – A precision air strike destroyed a tanker truck loaded with explosives during Operation Marne Avalanche northeast of Haswah July 20.

An F-16 fighter jet flying in support of the operation dropped two 500-pound bombs on the truck and destroyed it.

Marne Avalanche is designed to root out Sunni and Shia extremists operating from safe havens in the Euphrates River Valley.

In four days, Operation Marne Avalanche has resulted in four insurgents killed, 37 captured, including five high value targets and several destroyed caches and vehicles used by the insurgents.

Iraqis take lead in island clearing operation
Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO
FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq — Iraqi Soldiers and police officers took the lead in a search and clearance mission July 17 on Fish Island in the Karadah section of eastern Baghdad.

In Operation Ameliyet, Soldiers the 1st Battalion, 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division, along with Iraqi Police, scoured the river banks in a cordon-and-search mission to locate weapons caches. No weapons were found, but Soldiers and police officers learned there had been holes dug where weapons may have been stored previously.

While the mission yielded no weapons, it had its benefits, according to Capt. David K. Smith, commander of Company A, 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment. The 2-17th regularly works with the 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi Division.

“Operation Ameliyet was an excellent exercise in coordination with our Iraqi partners,” Smith said. “The plan successfully combined Coalition Forces, Iraqi Army Forces, Iraqi Police and a special police boat unit in a large-scale clearance operation.”

All the moving parts came together, according to Capt. Christopher Halstead, a liaison officer to the Iraqi Army for the 2-17th.

“The successes of this operation were not only in the efforts and execution of multiple Iraqi Security Forces and U.S. elements, but also in that they planned, coordinated and completed a task made even more complex by its requisite synchronization as well,” he said.

Three Iraqis freed, their captors detained
Multi-National Division – North PAO
TIKRIT, Iraq – Soldiers from Company D, 3-8 Combined Arms Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, freed three Iraqi civilians from a house, south of Samarra, and detained four individuals responsible for kidnapping them, Saturday.

The Soldiers observed individuals driving a black sedan kidnap two Iraqis from a bongo truck. The Soldiers followed the sedan to a house several miles south.

A total of three kidnapping victims – one of whom was already at the house where the second two were taken – were rescued, and treated for physical abuse by Coalition Forces’ medics at the scene.

The four kidnappers were detained along with their weapons and ammunition.

Iraqi man arrested for part in kidnapping of sheikh
Multi-National Division – Center PAO
PATROL BASE SHANGHAI, Iraq — A suspected al Qaeda-allied terrorist was arrested July 18 in connection with the June kidnapping of two brothers, one of whom was a rival tribal sheikh.

The man was detained by Iraqi soldiers of the 4th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division and U.S. troops of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) from Fort Drum, N.Y.

The kidnapped men escaped their captors June 23, and one of them ran to an Iraqi Army checkpoint pleading for help. The Iraqi soldiers took him to Patrol Base Shanghai, and a combined Iraqi-U.S. patrol drove to the orchard where the man had left his brother, the sheikh.

Both men bore signs of torture and said they had been kidnapped about two weeks before by al Qaeda-allied terrorists for refusing to cooperate with terrorist demands. They were treated for their wounds and were able to identify about 40 persons involved in their abduction.

WASHINGTON — It will take time and considerable resources to rebuild Iraq following more than 25 years of neglect under Saddam Hussein's rule, a U.S. military official told online journalists recently.

However, U.S. assistance is only part of a broader effort - from both Iraqi and other donor nations -- that will have a lasting effect on the country's infrastructure, said Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh, Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division commander.

Numerous relief and developmental funds have resulted in more than 3,300 completed projects for electricity, oil and water systems throughout Iraq. As of May, the Corps of Engineers had completed more than 2,300 projects impacting healthcare, transportation, education, communication and security.

Brig. Gen. Walsh said when U.S. Soldiers entered Iraq in 2003, they encountered Russian-made generators throughout the country that had neither been maintained nor upgraded during the 12-year quarantine Iraq implemented against Russia. The general described the repairs made to the equipment using Chinese and West German parts as being "innovative" but in desperate need of replacement.

"But once we go in and we renovate a lot of these generators and bring them up from the analog world into the digital world, they're not going to slip back into the analog world," he said.

The fact that Iraqis have enough water and health care is indicative that the rebuilding of infrastructure is having an influence in the war-torn country, the general said.

Brig. Gen. Walsh said that in the last four years, engineers have renovated or replaced 2,800 megawatts into the Baghdad loop. This has involved the strengthening and stabilization of the electrical transmission grid and completion of six overhead line projects affecting 425,000 households and 2.1 million Iraqi citizens.

"If we look at it from an electrical sector, the demand for electricity has gone up 30 percent after the first part of the war and has gone up 10 percent every year since then," Brig. Gen. Walsh said. "So people are buying air conditioners, refrigerators, TV' -- you know, they're buying things that require electricity. That would indicate to me that the economy is doing okay."

Currently the U.S. contributes $22 billion to rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, this is only one-fifth of what the World Bank estimates is required to put the country's facilities, Brig. Gen. Walsh said.

The general said the U.S. is tracking to see if Iraq or donor nations are able to pick up the remainder of the requirement. "We're trying to make sure that they're able to invest in their own country," Brig. Gen. Walsh said.

The White House's Initial Benchmark Assessment Report, released yesterday, cited the ability of the Iraqi government to execute only 22 percent of its capital budget is due to fact that the government wasn't set up until mid-2006.

Brig. Gen. Walsh reminded the journalists that the country had no procurement system set up so budget implementation and expenditure were slowed.

"The problem that they had last year is they did not have a procurement system in place where they can get contracts readily at the central ministry," he said. "So it would be significant if they were able to get $10 billion worth of contracts out; to have not a lot of construction on the ground done, if they were just to get those contracts in place, that would be significantly different than what we saw last year."

"They're kinda stuck between transparency and getting the work done," Brig. Gen. Walsh said. "When you do something like that, it takes a lot of time to get it through all the pedantic processes to make sure that there's not corruption involved."

- AL QUADA GIVING UP -

Fed up with being part of a group that cuts off a person’s face with piano wire to teach others a lesson, dozens of low-level members of al-Qaeda in Iraq are daring to become informants for the US military in a hostile Baghdad neighbourhood.

The ground-breaking move in Doura is part of a wider trend that has started in other al-Qaeda hotspots across the country and in which Sunni insurgent groups and tribal sheikhs have stood together with the coalition against the extremist movement.

“They are turning. We are talking to people who we believe have worked for al-Qaeda in Iraq and want to reconcile and have peace,” said Colonel Ricky Gibbs, commander of the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, which oversees the area.

The sewage-filled streets of Doura, a Sunni Arab enclave in south Baghdad, provide an ugly setting for what US commanders say is al-Qaeda’s last stronghold in the city. The secretive group, however, appears to be losing its grip as a “surge” of US troops in the neighbourhood – part of the latest effort by President Bush to end the chaos in Iraq – has resulted in scores of fighters being killed, captured or forced to flee.

“Al-Qaeda’s days are numbered and right now he is scrambling,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen Michael, who commands a battalion of 700 troops in Doura.

A key factor is that local people and members of al-Qaeda itself have become sickened by the violence and are starting to rebel, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael said. “The people have got to deny them sanctuary and that is exactly what is happening.”

Al-Qaeda informants comprise largely members of the Doura network who found themselves either working with the group after the US-led invasion in March 2003, or signed up to earn extra cash because there were no other jobs going. Disgusted at the attacks and intimidation techniques used on friends, neighbours and even relatives, they are now increasingly looking for a way out, US officers say.

“It is only after al-Qaeda has become truly barbaric and done things like, to teach lessons to people, cut their face off with piano wire in front of their family and then murdered everybody except one child who told the tale afterwards . . . that people realise how much of a mess they are in,” Lieutenant James Danly, 31, who works on military intelligence in Doura, said.

It is impossible to corroborate the claims, but he said that scores of junior al-Qaeda in Iraq members there had become informants since May, including one low-level cell leader who gave vital information after his arrest.

“He gave us dates, places and names and who did what,” Lieutenant Danly said. When asked why he was being so forthcoming, the man said: “Because I am sick of it and I hate them, and I am done.”

Working with insurgents – even those who claim to have switched sides – is a leap of faith for both sides. Every informant who visits Forward Operating Base Falcon, a vast military camp on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, is blindfolded when brought in and out to avoid gleaning any information about his surroundings.

The risk sometimes pays off. A recent tip-off led to the fatal shooting of Abu Kaldoun, one of three senior al-Qaeda leaders in Doura, during a US raid last week. “He was turned in by one of his own,” Colonel Michael said.

Progress with making contacts and gathering actionable information is slow because al-Qaeda has persuasive methods of keeping people quiet. This month it beheaded two men in the street and pinned a note on to their corpses giving warning that anyone who cooperated with US troops would meet the same fate.

The increased presence of US forces in Doura, however, is encouraging insiders to overcome their fear and divulge what they know. Convoys of US soldiers are working the rubble-strewn streets day and night, knocking on doors, speaking to locals and following up leads on possible insurgent hideouts.

“People in al-Qaeda come to us and give us information,” said Lieutenant Scott Flanigan, as he drove past a line of fruit and vegetable stalls near a shabby shopping street in Doura, where people were buying bread and other groceries.

The informants were not seeking an amnesty for crimes that they had committed. “They just do not want to be killed,” Lieutenant Flanigan said.

Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – who was killed in a US raid last year – established the Iraqi al-Qaeda network in 2004, but opinions differ on its compilation, size and capabilities. Some military experts believe that the group is a cell-based network of chapters who are loosely linked to an overall leader by go-between operatives.

Others, however, describe al-Qaeda in Iraq as a sort of franchise, with separate cells around the country that use the brand – made infamous by Osama bin Laden – and cultural ideology but do not work closely with each other or for one overriding leader.

Despite the uncertainties one thing seems guaranteed. A hardcore of people calling themselves al-Qaeda in Iraq remains devoted to the extremist cause and is determined to fight on whatever the cost.

Link to story in The Times.

Tags:Iraq
MNF Iraq
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