Commander: Ramadi safer than it has been in months

Stars and Stripes ^ | June 5, 2007 | Matt Millham

[ASC2006]

This time last year, Ramadi was arguably the most dangerous city in Iraq. Nowadays, it’s not exactly a model of peace and stability, but the threat to U.S. troops in some sectors of the city has gone down considerably.

In western Ramadi, an area patrolled and protected by the 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, it’s been more than four months since a U.S. soldier lost his life, and there has been just one serious injury in that time.

“We’re as safe as safe can be in a war zone,” Lt. Col. Miciotto O. Johnson, commander of the 1/77, said in a telephone interview. “But,” he said, “we are at war. We understand that.”

Johnson’s piece of Ramadi is 30 by 50 kilometers in size and the biggest task force sector in the city. The sector hasn’t always been this safe, if any part of the city can be reasonably characterized as safe. He lost eight soldiers before hitting the midpoint of his tour, and the makeshift bombs that are the enemy’s weapon of choice in most of Iraq were a constant threat.

With the help of Iraqi police and army soldiers, “We’ve eradicated that threat, primarily,” Johnson said.

The relative peacefulness in Ramadi is in large part thanks to local tribal leaders who changed alliances. Those who made the switch decided to help the U.S. and turned against al-Qaida, which is responsible for most violence in the city.

Since the switch, local Iraqis have joined the police and army in droves, and they’re doing what they hadn’t done before: They’re standing up to al-Qaida.

“The Iraqis are putting themselves in the same harm’s way that my soldiers are, and we appreciate that,” Johnson said.

[ASC2006]

The Sunni police the tribes have built with their members are very very good at what they do unlike the Shia police in Baghdad. The police in Ramadi are considered by the Marine Commandant the best in Iraq and the police force is less then a year old.

[pissant]

Let’s build on this. Make it a tourist destination soon!

[ASC2006]

ping

[SandRat]

FR WAR NEWS!

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Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!

[Marine_Uncle]

It sure appears that ar Ramadi shall soon find itself with no guns blaring or bombs going boom. Hopefully the central government has every intention of following up on working with the the government of al Anbar to start new work programs, reconstruction, and the rest of the good things that can continue to improve this region, and prevent potential turn coats from having any excuses not to join in the new Iraq.