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This remarkable series of before and after pictures documents the rebuilding efforts of Task Force Marne, aka Multi-National Division Center, aka "the surge" Division in Iraq, 2007-2008. The Division's area of responsibility included some of the most violent areas on the southern edge of Baghdad (the "Baghdad belts") and in addition to peacemaking efforts in the region the Division's mission included halting the flow of "accelerants" into the city. Areas such as Salman Pak, Yousifiyah, Arab Jabour, Jisr Diyala, Mahmudiyah, and Iskandariyah may not be familiar to Americans (they were generally - and erroneously - referred to as "Baghdad" in...

Coalition Special Operations Forces captured a "key Special Groups financier" with direct links to Iran's Qods Force in the city of Mahmudiyah on May 28. "He is suspected to be the primary financier between Iranian intelligence elements and Special Groups criminals in Mahmudiyah and southern Baghdad and was reportedly distributing funds to weapons smugglers supplying criminals in those areas," Multinational Forces Iraq reported in a press release. The Special Groups financier has conducted his activities outside Iraq, according to Multinational Forces Iraq. He is "believed to travel to Iran and Syria to procure funds on behalf of Special Groups senior...

Iraqi women's committee representatives from all over Iraq sit together for a meeting regarding the needs of women and children of Iraq at the Women’s Council Social held on May 5 at the Rasheed Nahia City Center, Rasheed, Iraq. U.S. Army Photo by Pfc. Rhonda Roth-Cameron. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Representatives from four local women’s committees in the Rasheed Nahia met in Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, May 5. Among those attending the gathering were Soldiers of Multi-National Division – Center and the U.S. State Department’s embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team Baghdad-7, who helped organize the committees. Women’s issues...

CAMP STRIKER — The Iraqi Army commander in Mahmudiyah won’t stand for criminal activity in his city. To that end, Brig. Gen. Ali Jassim Muhammad Hassen Al Frejee, commander of the 25th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and Lt. Col. William Zemp, commander of 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), worked together recently to make sure that violence seen in Basra wasn’t replicated in Mahmudiyah. Zemp, a native of Hartsville, S.C., said one word sums up the IA successes in the area: leadership. The IA leadership at all levels – company, battalion...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Security Forces are taking the lead in securing the city of Mahmudiyah against criminals. Iraqi Army soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 25th Brigade, 6th IA Division are securing the city’s neighborhoods with support from Red Knight Rakkasans of 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). This effort, which began March 27, has already proven successful. A cordon and search resulted in the discovery of a significant weapons cache in the Qadasiya Apartments March 28. The cache included 17 explosively-formed projectiles (EFP), 192 DSHKA rounds, Iraqi National Police uniforms and 18 assault...

WASHINGTON, Sep. 4, 2006 – Citing media reports suggesting a possible connection between three U.S. soldiers killed in June and the alleged rape of an Iraqi girl and murder of the girl and her family in March, military officials in Iraq today issued a statement saying “no evidence” connects the dead soldiers to the incident. “Past articles could be read to imply that the three deceased soldiers were somehow involved in the alleged crimes,” Multinational Corps Iraq officials said in the statement. Spc. David Babineau, Pfc. Thomas Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca – all assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion,...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq, Aug. 17, 2006 – The 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, officially assumed responsibility for security in parts of Mahmudiyah, Yusufiyah and Lutufiyah, Iraq, earlier this week. Iraqi army soldiers from 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, stand with the colors of their country held high during a transfer of authority ceremony in Mahmudiyah on Aug. 14. Photo by Spc. George Welcome, USA  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. During the Aug. 14 transfer of authority ceremony at the Iraqi army compound in Mahmudiyah, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, transferred to...

The U.S. military handed over to Iraqi forces on Monday security responsibilities for Mahmudiyah, one of the contentious areas south of Baghdad. Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division held an “Iraqis in the Lead” transfer of area ceremony on Monday, giving responsibility to the 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Discharged Army solider Steven D. Green has been charged in U.S. District Court with murder and rape in a March 12 attack on an Iraqi family in Mahmudiyah, Iraq.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Four U.S. soldiers were charged with the rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager and killing her family, bringing to five the number of Americans accused of the four deaths in March, the U.S. military said on Sunday. A fifth soldier was charged on Saturday with dereliction of duty for failing to report the case. Last week a sixth soldier, Steven Green, who has now left the army, was charged with rape and murder in a U.S. civilian court over the killings at Mahmudiya, near Baghdad.

Iraqi and U.S. troops respond to two separate attacks; ordnance disposal teams detonated unexploded ordnance discovered at the scene. MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq, July 26, 2005 — Iraqi Army and U.S. soldiers assigned to Task Force Baghdad helped treat victims of two separate terrorist attacks in Mahmudiyah and Al-Dora, July 21. Prior to the explosions, U.S. troops assigned to 3rd Platoon, E Troop, 108th Cavalry Regiment, 48th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, and the Iraqi Army’s 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Division operations and intelligence leaders met to plan future combined missions near Siad Abdullah and the surrounding areas which are known...

BAGHDAD (AP)--An explosion rocked an Iraqi National Guard headquarters in a city south of the capital on Saturday, witnesses said. There were reports of casualties. Ambulances raced to the scene and police cordoned off the area in Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad. Further details were not immediately available.