Iraqi Soldiers and civilians killed in Tall Afar

MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER

Jan. 27, 2006
TIKRIT, Iraq – Two Iraqi Army Soldiers died and four were wounded when an IED exploded in Tall Afar Jan. 27.
A second IED exploded while Iraqi Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Iraqi Army Division were evacuating the casualties from the first IED, but no one was injured in that explosion.
A third explosion occurred while the Soldiers were conducting a cordon and search of the area. One Iraqi civilian was killed and one was wounded in that explosion. Two Iraqi Soldiers were also wounded in the explosion.
Task Force Band of Brothers Soldiers from 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment immediately responded and conducted a cordon and search in the area of the third explosion. They detained two suspects who tested positive for explosive residue.
Iraqi security forces are working with their U.S. partners in the area to identify and capture those responsible for conducting these attacks

"Ain't Gonna Happen"

U.S. personnel strategy in Iraq raising questionsTroop rotations and unit sizes are called detrimental to the war effort
By JOSEPH GALLOWAYKnight Ridder Tribune News


TAL AFAR, IRAQ - The mayor of this city in western Iraq is unhappy that his friends in the U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment are going home soon, and he's written to President Bush and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, begging them to extend the regiment's tour of duty until it's finished pacifying Tal Afar.


The mayor, Najim Abadullah al Jibouri, is a Sunni Muslim Arab and a former officer in Saddam Hussein's army who's not from Tal Afar.
The provincial police chief in Mosul last summer appointed him a brigadier general to replace the local police chief, a Shiite who was turning a blind eye to police commando units that were causing suspected insurgents, all Sunnis, to disappear. Terrorists had blown up the police stations and driven out most of the policemen who weren't killed. On a U.S. recommendation, he was later promoted to mayor.
Since then, al Jibouri has worked hand in glove with Col. H.R. McMaster, the commander of the 3rd ACR, and Lt. Col. Christopher Hickey, who commands Sabre Squadron, which is based inside Tal Afar. The mayor doesn't want them to leave when their yearlong deployment is over in March.
The regiment's success and the mayor's concern about its departure raise two important questions about America's strategy in Iraq:
The first is whether the American practice of rotating troops in and out of Iraq — typically one-year tours of duty for soldiers and seven months for Marines — may be undermining the fight against Iraq's insurgency.
Limiting tours as the United States did in Vietnam helps relieve stress, support families and maintain morale. It also means that soldiers and Marines who are new to an area have to learn all over again what their predecessors discovered, often the hard way. And it disrupts personal relationships, such as the one al Jibouri has developed with McMaster and Hickey, which are indispensable in Iraq.
Over cups of hot, sweet tea, al Jibouri slyly jabbed at McMaster, a Philadelphia native who commanded a tank company in the 2nd Armored Cavalry in the Gulf War, and Hickey, an Army brat who was born at Fort Bliss, Texas, but grew up everywhere. "For you to leave is like a surgeon leaving in the middle of an operation," he said.
"We don't doubt there are many fine officers in the American army," the mayor explained. "But during these months, Colonel Hickey and I have created a relationship where I know what he will say even before he says it, and he knows what I will say. We have been through hard times together to forge these bonds. You should finish the job and then you can move on. "
The second question is whether the United States has sent enough troops to Iraq to duplicate the 3rd ACR's success in Tal Afar in bigger cities and nationwide. Al Jibouri said the American cavalrymen in Tal Afar had conducted "the best operation in Iraq, with none of the big destruction like in Fallujah."
Tal Afar has some 250,000 people, and the city is relatively remote and self-contained. The 3rd ACR, which has some 4,700 troops, walled off the city and cleared out terrorists and insurgents block by block.
Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who commanded the Army's 101st Airborne Division, was given high marks for rebuilding the Mosul area after the 2003 invasion, but community relations soured when his division left and was replaced with a much smaller brigade.
And while violence is way down in Tal Afar compared with last summer, there are only faint signs of reconciliation between the city's competing ethnic groups.
Order is enforced by outsiders with a heavy military hand.
McMaster and his troops arrived last summer after Tal Afar suffered 140 terrorist attacks in June.
Then the Americans, the mayor, a new chief of police and an emboldened Iraqi army division began the long, hard work of pacifying the city and restoring some semblance of law and order.

Note from Pa -- I ran across this news item scanning for information on the 3rd ACR this morning. While the Tall Afar mayor has legitimate respect for Col. McMaster, LTC. Hickey and the soldier's of the 3rd ACR, extending the tour of our sons and daughters certainly won't hasten the end to terrorism. It won't do much to maintain moral, relieve stress, or increase family support either. Think about it. "Ain't gonna happen"

First group of 3rd ACR soldiers return from Iraq

By Cary Leider Vogrin The (Colorado Springs) Gazette
At 12:21 a.m. today, two Gray Line buses filled with soldiers drove through Fort Carson’s main gate, escorted by the flashing lights of military police. It was the first of several homecomings for the 5,200-soldier 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which deployed from Fort Carson for Iraq in March. Family and friends anxiously awaited the group’s scheduled 1 a.m. arrival inside a gymnasium on post. "The nerves have settled now. It’s just excitement," said Bonnie Harris as she waited for her son, Staff Sgt. Jesse Harris, to walk through the door. Farther up the bleachers, Kay and Steve Lance got out Kleenex and positioned their camera for the arrival of Spc. Noah Lance. "All Right. Come on!," Kay Lance said, getting a bit restless. "It’s 2 (minutes) after." They wouldn’t have to wait much longer. "You guys ready?" Maj. Mark Solomon, the regiment’s rear detachment commander, asked before the soldiers, dressed in their desert camouflage, marched in the gymnasium to cheers and claps and the blare of Toby Keith’s "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue." The soldiers lined up, faced the bleachers and scanned the crowd as Col. David Saffold, assistant division commander for support, promised to keep his message brief. "Folks, this will be short if that’s OK with you. Good morning!" Saffold said before thanking the group for their service. "The only thing between you and them is the Army song," he said. Minutes later, the song over, their were whoops and cheers as family members rushed from the bleachers to the gym floor. Staff Sgt. Anthony Reid said his plans for the next few days are simple: Rest, watch some TV and drink diet Mt. Dew. "Maybe get out and see how much has changed," he said. The regiment is just completing its second year-long deployment to Iraq. Most of the unit policed Tal Afar, an insurgent stronghold, in northwest Iraq; about 1,000 soldiers were deployed in Baghdad. Thirty-nine of the unit's soldiers were killed during this deployment. The rest of the regiments soldier’s will return over the next several weeks.

Terrorist blows himself up

MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ
COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER
TIKRIT, Iraq – A terrorist bomber was killed Jan. 12 near Tal Afar when the IED he was emplacing detonated prematurely.
Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment discovered the bomber's body and part of a shovel near a roadside blast crater.
This is the second such incident over the past three days. Two terrorists were killed Jan. 9 while emplacing an IED near Samarra .
Roadways are consistently monitored throughout the area by security forces, to curb the ability of terrorists to dig holes in the roads to plant IEDs for indiscriminate attacks on civilians, Iraqi and Coalition forces.
Anti-Iraqi forces and terrorists choose well-traveled roads to bury IEDs and mines in a blind effort to kill civilians or security forces. Iraqi and Coalition Soldiers, as well as Iraqi Police, provide route patrols whose sole mission is to locate the IEDs and capture those responsible for their emplacement in order to prevent the destruction of life and travel routes around the country.

Weapons seized, suspects detained

(TFBOB Press Release)
TIKRIT, Iraq – Three weapons caches were discovered and 21 anti-Iraqi forces suspects were detained in northern Iraq Wednesday.
Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment conducted a raid against a suspected AIF cell in Tal Afar just after midnight Wednesday. The unit discovered two mortar rounds, a large supply of small arms ammunition and a home-made mine. Seven men were detained at the site.
Two separate raids in Mosul by Soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team resulted in the capture of eight AIF suspects, including one believed to be involved with mortar attacks against civilian targets in the area.
Two other Mosul residents are being credited with discovering a cache of anti-tank mines after reporting what they believed to be an IED to local police. Police officers secured the area and an Iraqi explosive ordnance disposal unit responded and found 20 AT mines and an artillery round.
Another Iraqi EOD team in Kirkuk was called in Wednesday morning to dispose of a collection of old munitions discovered in the back of a truck. Eighteen artillery shells and two mortar rounds were safely destroyed.
Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division captured three suspects near a weapons cache in the Tikrit area Wednesday afternoon. The cache, consisting of mortar rounds and rockets, was discovered near an area where numerous rocket and mortar attacks have originated.
An ineffective rocket attack against a base near Balad led to the capture of three more AIF suspects. Soldiers from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division stopped the suspects’ vehicle after a coalition aircraft observed them trying to flee the area.

Combined raids result in 23 captures

MNF press release (excerpts) Dec. 31, 2005
TIKRIT, Iraq – Iraqi and U.S. Soldiers captured 23 suspected terrorists who were the targets of three raids Dec. 30 and Dec. 31 in northern Iraq.
Troops from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment zeroed in on eight people involved in terrorist activities in Tal Afar. All eight of the suspects were picked up without incident in the raid and taken to a nearby military base for questioning.
None of the Soldiers involved in the two days of operations were injured as they continued to remove those responsible for acts of terrorism and violence against the civilians and security forces in the area.
A small cache of artillery shells was discovered and seized by a patrol from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Tal Afar.

On The Road to Tall Afar and Mosul - A New Year's Resolution

2006

Coming Home

by: Donald J. Harris

a proud Dad

1. I promise to finish my duty in Iraq, and come home a better person.
2. When I get home, I will be a better person for the experiences and maturity I have gathered while away.
3. The fight for Freedom and Democracy will be a mainstay in my past, and a focus of my future.
4. I will not burden others with my shortcomings, when I can lighten their load with my strengths.
5. I will remember the Children of Iraq as I hold my own.
6. My best efforts will show by my actions.
7. Good things will happen, because I know how to help. I Will Help because I can.
8. I will love my Family more than myself.
9. I will honor my God because He protected me.
10. I will honor my Country because I have fought with the Best. "Brave Rifles" 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment