On Sept. 4, Iraqi security forces, working closely with Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers, conducted Operation South Sword Search in the Baghdad neighborhood of Bakriyah.
Policemen with the 2nd Iraqi National Police Division and Soldiers from the 6th Iraqi Army Division, along with U.S. Soldiers from 1the 2nd Infantry Division, are working to clear the area of illegal weapons and put an end to terrorist activities there.
“This was a totally combined operation,” said Maj. Jesse Pearson, 23rd Infantry Regiment. “They were extremely successful in helping us capture enemy personnel, and question them for intelligence.”
“We are capitalizing on successes of Operation Together Forward by denying terrorists the means to hide weapons,” added Capt. Miller, also from the 23rd Inf. Regt.
While his troops secured the neighborhood, Lt. Col. Avanulas Smiley, commander, 1st Battalion, 23rd Inf. Regt., took advantage of the opportunity to talk to residents about essential services in the neighborhood.
“With the Iraqi battalion we are working with, we are going to continue on the path to reduce violence and crime,” said Smiley. “One of the ways to do that is by cleaning up the neighborhood.”
Since the launch of Operation Together Forward, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team has searched more than 27,000 buildings, seized over 600 illegal weapons and detained 32 suspected terrorists.
Several days earlier, in the Adhamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Soldiers of Multi-National Division - Baghdad’s 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team rolled into a cordoned section of Baghdad to continue clearing operations.
The Soldiers, along with members of the Iraqi National Police, patrolled the neighborhood, looking for weapons caches and other signs of possible terrorist activity.
With the help of a dog team from the 67th Specialized Search Dogs Detachment, the platoon was able to clear approximately 130 residences and businesses in three days of operating in the area.
“Our mission today was to root out any weapons caches, find any foreign fighters and (eventually) bring some peace and normalcy to the area,” said Capt. Duane Waits, a platoon leader.
The platoon’s two-fold mission also involved collecting information from residents about trouble in the neighborhood, in addition to general information about the local populace.
“We have been going more or less house to house, getting a census of the community to see who lives where, what’s going on and what problems they have been having in the neighborhoods,” said Spc. Phillip Page, 14th Cavalry Regiment.
“For example, we are trying to gain information about terrorists groups in the area and how they are affecting the populace, and as a result, how the populace feels about Coalition forces coming into this neighborhood,” said Page. “We want the local residents to feel comfortable enough to tell us what’s going on and to lead us in the right direction to track down these terrorists.”
In the Adhamiyah neighborhood - where agriculturally-minded residents grow everything from date palm trees to garden vegetables - the neighbors appear pleased with the progress they’ve witnessed.
“Most of the residents we have spoken with are farmers,” said Page. “They are good people who have been living in the area for quite a while and just trying to make a living for themselves.”
Until recently, violence had touched even the most innocuous of sites. During their patrols, U.S. and Iraqi Soldiers came across a kindergarten school that had in recent weeks come under fire from terrorist mortars.
The terrorists were aiming at the Iraqi National Police station nearby, explained the head security guard for the kindergarten. “If (these patrols) happen more times, maybe the terrorists would leave.”
The guard said he has lived in the neighborhood for seven years, and has watched the area change for the worse. Now he said he feels the security operations underway will be good for the neighborhood.
“Even my babies, they see Americans and Iraqi forces and they feel safe because they think this will give security to them,” said the guard.
“A lot of the residents I have spoken with said as soon as we rolled in, the terrorists, or whoever was taking over this area, rolled out,” added Page. “Violence has gone down and it seems pretty peaceful.”
In other developments throughout Iraq:
- Iraqi Soldiers from the 9th Iraqi Army Division seized a large weapons cache Sept. 2 after searching the Al-Nida Mosque in northern Baghdad.
- The 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Iraqi Army Division became the third and final battalion to take the lead in assuming security operations for the city of Tal Afar during a ceremony held at Fort Tal Afar on Sept. 2.
(Compiled from official DoD sources)