Sabers Recruit Local Citizens to help with Security

Multi-National Force - Iraq ^ | Pfc. Kirby Rider

[SandRat]

MUQDADIYA — During Operation Steel Sledge, Soldiers of Charlie Troop, 6-9 Armored Reconnaissance Squadron, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, recruited about 200 local citizens from one village to help provide greater security for the Muqdadiya region.

About 30 Soldiers of Charlie 6-9 ARS set out in the early morning darkness each day of the operation, which took place at the beginning of October, to recruit and register locals for a Concerned Local Citizens (CLC) group from the village of North Oskrey. The recruits will work to enhance security in the neighboring village of Baloor, which is itself a neighborhood of Muqdadiya, in Diyala province.

Before their security efforts in Baloor, 6-9 ARS led missions to clear insurgents from North Oskrey. However, the mission quickly changed to creating strongholds of CLC groups throughout the region, said Capt. Tim Lawrence, executive officer for Charlie Troop 6-9 ARS.

“We are building defensive positions for the Concerned Local Citizens, cleaning the roads, building hospitals and re-opening schools,” Lawrence said. The new CLC will work with Coalition forces to keep al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) from returning to the city and to keep hospitals and schools secured.

The area wasn’t always violent. After AQI was pushed out of Baqouba, the organization started recruiting in the Muqdadiya region and fighting broke out between the Sunni and Shiite tribes, Lawrence said.

The two tribes were “best friends” before AQI and Jihadi al-Mahdi came in, they were brothers and sisters, Lawrence said. When the two militant groups started recruiting, the citizens started fighting each other and Coalition forces had to intervene, he continued. Now that the fighting has stopped, the community is starting to bond together again. The markets are reopening and the citizens are working together to keep the city secured, Lawrence said.

Before Operation Saber Hammer II, a major Diyala clearing operation in October of 2007, Coalition forces couldn’t drive through North Oskrey without finding improvised explosive devices or receiving sniper fire, said Sgt. First Class Timothy Frank Jr., a platoon leader in Charlie 6-9 ARS. Coalition forces pushed AQI from the town and have kept them off long enough to build up a force of CLC and clear the roads so traffic can move freely through the city.

So far, Coalition forces have helped recruit more than 1,700 CLC in the Muqdadiya region. Two-hundred more CLC have been recruited to go into Baloor, the most dangerous part of Muqdadiya, to help combat insurgents and restore the peace. The CLC have been working with the Iraqi Army and Coalition forces to clear AQI and remove illegal weapons from the town, Frank said.

Along with hospitals and schools, Coalition forces have also helped re-establish the Public Distribution System, and get food agents to return to the city. The Public Distribution System is a program that delivers essential items to families at a low cost. The program was shut down by AQI earlier in the year, but was restarted by Coalition forces in August.

Coalition forces additionally set up a soccer league to help the morale of the Iraqi people. Other projects include building a police station in Baloor and getting ambulances to the hospitals.

[SandRat]

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