Cache found near JSS Torch

Cache found near JSS Torch
BlackAnthem Military News
By 1st Lt. Charles Bloomfield, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment
May 11, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Soldiers in western Baghdad found a large cache of mortar rounds near a joint security stations May 9.

Once the cache was identified, Iraqi troops from 2nd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division secured the area and waited for an Iraqi explosive ordnance team to inspect the site.

The Iraqi Army requested assistance from the 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, located at Joint Security Station Torch.

1st Lt. Christopher Lowry, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., responded to the request for support with 1st Platoon, Company G and called for EOD support to work alongside the Iraqi forces. EOD determined that there were 46, 57mm mortar rounds.

The wired mortars did not have timers with them; however, a cache from the same location was uncovered last week that included the necessary timers to convert the rounds into roadside bombs.

EOD did not detonate the mortars on site due to the high risk of collateral damage. They removed the mortar rounds from the site for disposal.

Iraqi general touts area turnaround

Iraqi general touts area turnaround
USA TODAY
By Rick Jervis
May 8, 2007

BAGHDAD — Yassir Layth, 12, whose favorite sports are soccer and "push-ups," used to pedal his bike past human corpses each day on his way to school.

Today, the two-block path from his home to Nablus Primary School is not nearly as scary, he said. The shooting has stopped, car bombs have quieted and, most noticeably, the dead bodies have gone away.

"My friends were too scared to come to class, and so was I," Yassir said inside his classroom, crowded with other students. "Now everyone comes to school."

The school is in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Yarmouk, which the Iraqi military showcased Monday as a sign the nearly 3-month-old Baghdad security plan is working. Yarmouk used to be one of the city's worst battlegrounds for sectarian violence, but a flood of Iraqi troops into the area has made things better, Iraqi Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta al-Mousawi said.

A large Iraqi army checkpoint, reinforced with blast barriers, mortar bunkers and concertina wire, stood at one of the main entrances to the area. Other streets had been blocked off. A large Iraqi armored vehicle, known as a Badger, was parked next to one of the public squares.

With support from U.S. troops, the Iraqi military focuses its efforts on specific, violent areas around the city. That is why some neighborhoods seem subdued, while nearby districts are engulfed in shootouts and car bombs, al-Mousawi said.

"We have a strategy. Now we're attacking the terrorists here," said al-Mousawi, flanked by a company of Iraqi soldiers and armored Humvees. "Then our strategy will shift to another district. It's step by step."

Several similar efforts to secure Baghdad have failed because violence flared up after troops rotated into a new area. Iraq's government hopes a recent increase of U.S. and Iraqi troop levels will help keep the peace in more neighborhoods.

Judith Yaphe, an Iraq expert at the National Defense University in Washington, described efforts such as the one in Yarmouk as "a sign of progress, but no one knows for how long (it will last)." Longer-term success "depends on how long we maintain the presence and how much progress the Iraqis make in reconciling their differences and establishing an effective government," she said.

Once an affluent area lined with plush villas and wide squares, Yarmouk became one of the deadliest battlegrounds in Baghdad after the U.S. invasion. Shootouts and explosions occurred nearly daily, residents said.

Husham Qassim said his neighborhood has become safer, though lack of electricity and clean water remains a problem. Two of Qassim's sons recently returned from Syria, where they fled from Baghdad's violence. "Thank God, it's better," said Qassim, 60, a retiree. "Now I can finally go to the market. We hope it stays this way."

Children at the Nablus Primary School down the street used to constantly dodge gunfire and car bombs on their way to and from school, said Widad Ahmed Azid, the school's headmaster. Students often located bodies on the streets around the school and ran back to their teachers to report them, she said. Last year, one student was killed by a car bomb explosion down the street. Half of the school's original 1,000 students fled Baghdad, she said.

The situation drastically improved after the start of the security plan, Azid said. The classrooms began to refill with students as the shootings and explosions stopped, she said.

"As soon as you left the school, there were shootings, explosions; it was like a war zone," Azid said. "The situation has greatly improved. I only hope it stays that way."

Dagger Brigade Weekly Slides

Dagger Brigade Weekly Slides
Dagger Brigade Combat Team Official Site
Week: April 30 - May 6
Slides: 24-27

Patriots Integrate at JSS Torch

Bravo Battery Soldiers Build Relationships With Local Citizens

LT Patrick Henson
PVT Johneric Brown

Gladiators On The Job

SPC Joseph Green
SPC Shawna Yost
Golf Company

Proud Americans Re-Enlist

SPC Terrill Welge
SPC Daniel Holtz
1LT Joseph Schoen