Posted on 01/06/2006 4:59:32 PM PST by SandRat
TIKRIT, Iraq, Jan. 6, 2006 – In a combined effort to reduce insurgent violence in the village of Siniyah in the northern part of Iraq's Salah Ad Din province, community leaders, Iraqi security forces and coalition soldiers began construction yesterday on a berm around the village.
Following the recent spike in insurgent roadside and car bombs, leaders of this small village near Bayji discussed what measures could be taken to improve the security situation. Local police, city council members, sheiks and religious leaders met with leaders from the 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), to discuss the operation.
Siniyah's community leaders have long insisted those responsible for the violence were outsiders, not residents of the village, U.S. military officials said. An overwhelming majority of those at the meeting agreed that a berm would prevent outsiders from using the village as a safe haven.
Once completed, the berm will be about 10 kilometers long and nearly eight feet high. Iraqi police and soldiers will man the access points into the village and the guard towers being built in conjunction with the berm.
Iraqi citizens suffer the most from insurgent violence. Almost 80 percent of those killed and wounded by IEDs are Iraqis, not coaltion soldiers, officials noted.
Provincial leaders expressed their approval of the operation. After a similar operation to deny insurgents access to the city of Samarra in August, officials said, the level of violence sharply dropped off. Work on the berm is expected to continue for several days.
Protecting Tikrit!
Walls work.
Ask the Israelis and now the Iraqis.
Then build one on our southern border...
At least we continue to hear tons of little good news story that add up to a focused long term success story. Once a town/village/city start to sit down for serious talks about how to protect their citizentry, you know there is one less place any of the various insurgent elements or foreign goons will have as a safe house. I continue to feel, despite those occasional suicide attacks in some cities, much of what where very resitive areas are now coming around. The insurgency is being shut down.
Strategic Hamlets!
Well, if nothing else, it will convince the Salifists that the town is apostate: after all Muslims don't build berms, they dig trenches. Mohammed dug a trench.
(I'm semi-serious about this. The lunatics we're fighting sometimes make idiotic blunders because they insist on imitating Mohammed's 7th century 'model' in the 21st century.)
BTTT
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