OK, wild week. Things all over the country are heating up, good thing about it is I don't think the violence is swaying anyone towards the insurgent's cause. Most of the violence is killing civilians, which is not a good way to convince a population you are right. There have been some pretty spectacular (in a bad way) suicide vest bombings, I have no idea who would strap a suicide vest on and blow themselves up, or how you go about recruiting someone to do that, but wow. In our area . . .
There were 6 IEDs found (mostly by the Sons Of Iraq and National Police) in the southern boundary region of our AO, and another 2 found on two of our major roads. All but one of them were found before they detonated (the one that detonated blew up after a National Police patrol went past it, no injuries), but still, that makes getting in the vehicle to go on missions just a little more thought provoking. Not sure if you remember this from the blog, but our southern boundary is shared with a less than stellar Iraqi Army unit, they haven't really done a lot to help out the situation. They made a few arrests, which didn't work out well for the CPT that made the arrests (he was killed in an ambush that made it clear that the folks that got arrested had friends that didn't like him being arrested).
On top of all of the IEDs, folks in some of the smaller villages are taking pot shots at the National Police, which drives BG E crazy. In response to all of the shenanigans going on down on the southern boundary, he extended his boundary so he could go into the area that a lot of insurgents were able to operate in. His theory was that the insurgents were coming from the zone to our south, emplacing the IEDs in our area then going back to the southern area where he couldn't chase them. So he extended the boundary and started doing missions in that area.
Once he started doing missions down there, IEDs started re-appearing on our major highways, so he probably poked the hornets nest, which is just fine with him. He is very anxious to chase folks down and make arrests. His biggest frustration is that the legal system is holding him back - - he can't get warrants very quickly (still waiting on warrants that he requested at the beginning of April). Without a warrant, he can't make an arrest that will stick. Very frustrating.
We went with him when he monitors the operations, he is pretty cool about how he monitors the missions. Most generals (even US commanders) want to be right there, kind of micromanaging an operation, he hangs back with his commo officer and NCO, monitoring three motorolas and two cell phones, map in hand. It is very enlightening to watch, him allowing his subordinates to manage the battle and he just waits to help them out if necessary.
He has another one of his units clearing the businesses on the side of the two major highways that had IEDs on them. It was kind of cool this morning when we were driving out we saw some of the National Police soldiers picking up trash from the sides of the road and the median - - insurgents will use garbage to hide their IEDs because trash is everywhere and most folks just don't notice it anymore.
All of the pressure is starting to work, there was a big arrest last night. The guy picked up was a major IED distributor and had a lot of connections. We will see if other folks shake out from this arrest.
I was out on a mission yesterday and today we had a small humanitarian assistance mission with the National Police, basically we hung around while they passed out boxes of Red Crescent (Arab version of the Red Cross) supplies to needy families. I took a few pictures, that was about it. The guys didn't really want to go - - I think they were looking at a day off and reminding me that two suicide vests had been used in other humanitarian assistance missions, the National Police had it under control and it was an easy mission. Monday's are traditionally our days with no missions scheduled.
Other news:
The team has found out that our replacements are on the way, they should be getting here sometime in August, we should be leaving here in the first couple of weeks of September, and should be back in the US shortly after that. It is a long way off, but it is something to look forward to.
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