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Navy Riverines are in demand in Iraq to deny insurgents’ use of rivers as transport routes, avenues of escape The Navy Riverine units to be created this year will face a tough and dangerous task in Iraq, where insurgents increasingly rely on inland waterways to transport people and weapons. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which cut through the Iraqi heartland, also are vital avenues of escape for insurgents who strike in urban areas and slither away to avoid counterattacking American units. The only maritime capability now addressing the river-borne insurgents comprises little more than 100 Marine Corps reservists and fewer...

BALAD, Iraq, Dec. 29, 2005 – You can call it "Army water" or "No-name water," but whatever you call it, servicemembers here will stay hydrated while keeping soldiers and civilian truckers safer. Bottled water is a mainstay of life in this theater, and the 3rd Corps Support Command has opened a water purification and bottling plant at the massive logistical area here. The corps has long wanted to open bottling plants in Iraq, officials said. Currently, bottled water - the preferred drink in Iraq - comes in via truck from Kuwait, Jordan or Turkey. Water is bulky and takes a...

On the Euphrates Riverine Warfare on the Euphrates River By Bill Roggio HADITHA DAM, IRAQ: The company of Marines known as the Dam Security Unit are a unique bunch. The DSU is a one of a kind unit in the Marine Corps. They are primarily made of of reservists, almost 90% of them. And they come from units across the county; Texas, Florida, Virginia, Indiana and Mississippi. Naturally there were some snags in the beginning while integrating the disparate units, but you wouldn’t know it by watching them operate. Their primary mission is to provide for security on the Haditha...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Nov. 30, 2005) -- Task Force Baghdad Soldiers found multiple weapons caches on an island in the Euphrates River Nov. 28. Military officials had been monitoring suspicious activity near the Euphrates River southwest of Baghdad for a couple of weeks. When conditions were right, Soldiers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division sprung into action. “The timing was right to attack the target,” said 2nd BCT Commander Col. Todd Ebel. “The pieces of the puzzle fit close enough.” Bombs, rockets, grenades found Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment secured the objective and discovered three...

Insurgencies are not put down in a fortnight. But considering the successes in the recent counter-insurgency sweep in Iraq's Al Anbar Province, one fact becomes obvious to anyone with so much as a sliver of an understanding of ground combat operations: Eliminating the insurgency in Iraq is best left to those who best know how to do it.

BAGHDAD, June 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Marines launched a major operation in western Iraq on Tuesday, dispatching 1,000 troops against suspected insurgents in the western Euphrates river valley. "Operation Saif (Sword) began early this morning to root out terrorists and foreign fighters living along the Euphrates River between the cities of Haditha and Hit," the Marines said in a statement. Marine and army units were backed by a company of 100 Iraqi soldiers, it said. The operation, in an area 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Baghdad, is at least the fourth battalion-sized operation the Marines have launched in...

May was a costly month in Iraq: 700 Iraqis and some 80 Americans died, making it one of the bloodiest months of the war. While bombings in Baghdad decreased over the last two weeks as the result of a major sweep by some 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen, backed up by 10,000 troops (Operation Lightning/Operation Thunder), insurgent attacks against Iraqi civilians and police have resumed. The continuing attacks have generated the usual sort of stories in the U.S. press: America is mired in a Vietnam-style quagmire. Thus a recent Boston Globe report began by claiming: "Military operations in Iraq have...

ust when things were looking up for Iraq's iconic marshlands, another threat has materialised. Iran has begun building a dyke that will threaten the water supply to the healthiest of the wetlands, the Al-Hawizeh marsh. "It will cut off a vast amount of water and remove some of the recovering marshes," says Curtis Richardson of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who is monitoring the recovery. Richardson told New Scientist that maintaining the Al-Hawizeh marsh, which straddles the border between Iran and Iraq, is crucial because it is a refuge for species that may recolonise other marshes. The wetlands, which...

CHARD DUWAISH, Iraq, Nov. 28 - As marines aboard fast patrol boats roared up the Euphrates on a dawn raid on Sunday, images pressed in of another American war where troops moved up wide rivers on camouflaged boats, with machine-gunners nervously scanning riverbanks for the hidden enemy. That war is rarely mentioned among the American troops in Iraq, many of whom were not yet born when the last American combat units withdrew from Vietnam more than 30 years ago. A war that America did not win is considered a bad talisman among those men and women, who privately admit to...

Al-Zarqawi's Group in Iraq Changes Name Associated Press CAIRO, Egypt - Tawhid and Jihad, the Iraqi militant group of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, apparently has changed its name two days after announcing its merger with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization. An Internet statement released Tuesday under the purported new name, al-Qaida of Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers, claimed responsibility for an attack on a U.S. military convoy west of the Iraqi city of Fallujah the same day. The two rivers in the new name refers to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Iraq.

Patrolling the Euphrates A Marine attached to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit watches the shores as his watercraft patrols the Euphrates River outside Forward Operating Base Iskandariyah, Iraq, Oct. 1, 2004. The Marine is with Small Craft Company, attached to Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines. The 24th MEU is currently conducting security and stability operations in Northern Babil province. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Zachary R. Frank opfopfopfopfopfopfopfopfopfo Preparing to leave dock, Marines attached to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit make last-minute checks of their crafts before patrolling the Euphrates River outside Forward Operating Base...

Marine awarded Bronze StarSubmitted by: MCRD Parris IslandStory Identification Number: 2004359350Story by Lance Cpl. Brian Kester MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C.(March 5, 2004) -- The recruits of Platoon 1033 have a hero in their midst, a man who has achieved what some can only dream of achieving -- a Bronze Star for actions on the battlefield. The heroic efforts displayed by this Marine in battle are a direct result of a humble man who was only "out there doing the job." Sergeant Edward R. Ferguson, drill instructor with Platoon 1033, Alpha Company, 1st RTBn., was presented with the Bronze Star for...

3 US soldiers dead in Iraq October 14, 2003 TWO US soldiers died in a military vehicle accident in Baghdad and another was found dead, floating in the Euphrates river in the northwestern Iraqi town of Haditha, coalition forces said. "Two 1st Armored Division soldiers were killed and one was injured in a military vehicle accident with a civilian vehicle" in Baghdad Monday, the US-led coalition said in a statement. It also said a 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment soldier was found dead in the Euphrates river, in Haditha, 250 kilometres northwest of Baghdad. "The soldier was found floating in the...

'A Gift From God' Renews a Village Iraqi Engineers Revitalize Marshes That Hussein Had Drained By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, October 11, 2003; Page A01 ZAYAD, Iraq -- The surging water from the Euphrates River first quenched the desiccated soil around this village. Then, with a steady crescendo, it smothered farming tracts, inundated several homes and enveloped the landscape to the horizon. "Hamdulillah," intoned Salim Sherif Kerkush, the stout village sheik. Thank God. Thin reeds now sprout on the glassy surface. Aquatic birds build nests on tiny islands. And lanky young boys in flowing tunics spend the...

The Marsh Arabs of Iraq have given up waiting for outsiders to restore their wetlands. Local people are taking matters into their own hands by breaching dykes and shutting down pumping stations in a bid to restore the marshes drained by Saddam Hussein's regime. But some experts worry that their actions could hamper the region's recovery. Five months ago, New Scientist reported that an international team of wetland experts, backed by the US State Department, planned to gradually re-flood the wetlands (print edition, 26 April 2003). But reports from inside Iraq reveal this plan is increasingly irrelevant. Even as Saddam's...

Jason Burke joins a squad of US reservists as they hunt for an Iraqi guerrilla leader in the dusty streets of Ramadi The word is passed down the line of men crouching against the wall. They whisper, fearful of waking those in the house that looms above them. 'Fire in the hole,' they mutter one after another. 'Fire in the hole.' There is a pause. It is 6am and Ramadi, a dirty, dusty town 70 miles west of Baghdad, is very quiet. The morning is still relatively cool, though the fierce heat that will scorch the streets within hours can...

<p>SAVANNAH, Ga. — Sgt. Ignacio Martinez’s troops never fought on the front lines in Iraq. Instead, they pumped and purified more than 2 million gallons of water that went from the Euphrates River, farmers’ wells and irrigation ponds into soldiers’ canteens.</p>

<p>There could be an unexpected beneficiary of the war in Iraq: the environment.</p> <p>More specifically, the late, great Mesopotamian marshes -- a decade ago, the largest wetland by far in the Middle East, and a site considered by many religious scholars as the inspiration for the Garden of Eden in the Bible and Koran.</p>

Deadly chemicals are found dumped in river By David Harrison in Nasiriyah (Filed: 06/04/2003) Mustard gas and cyanide have been found in river water in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, coalition forces said yesterday. The poisonous substances are believed to have been dumped in the Euphrates either by Iraqi soldiers fleeing from American troops or local factories that produced weapons of mass destruction. A spokesman for the United States marines, based just outside the city, described the quantities of chemical agents found as "significant" and claimed that it was further evidence that Saddam Hussein has produced weapons of mass destruction....

OUTSKIRTS OF BAGHDAD, Iraq - The sights were awesome and terrible - and strangely beautiful - when Apache Company's Bradley Fighting Vehicles crossed the Euphrates River Wednesday for the first time since they entered Iraq 13 days ago. On the causeway, a modern four-lane arch of concrete and steel, two vehicles that had been hit by tank or Bradley fire were burning. A gray-haired Iraqi soldier in bloody camouflage fatigues lay dead. Down a set of steps on a nearby embankment, three American soldiers treated a wounded Iraqi soldier who had been hit in the head by shrapnel. On...