[Link to Full Article] By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, March 23, 2004
DIYANA, Iraq — U.S. soldiers are using SUVs and snowplows to keep open the political inroads they’ve made in this northern Iraq region.
Reservists from Task Force Olympia’s 416th Civil Affairs Battalion, out of Norristown, Pa., arrived in Irbil last month to find their Kurdish counterparts as new to the job as they were.
Irbil’s governor, lieutenant governor, and 20 other top officials were killed in blasts last month, which rocked the headquarters of Kurdistan’s two main political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. In all, more than 100 were killed in the Feb. 1 blasts.
Task Force Olympia officials say they believe the blasts were intended to drive a wedge between the parties, which fought a bloody civil war between 1994 and 1998. The parties have actually come closer together, however, with the help of the civil affairs troops, the officials said.
Troops make inroads
416th CAB in the news, photos included.
[Link to Full Article]By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, March 23, 2004
DIYANA, Iraq — U.S. soldiers are using SUVs and snowplows to keep open the political inroads they’ve made in this northern Iraq region.
Reservists from Task Force Olympia’s 416th Civil Affairs Battalion, out of Norristown, Pa., arrived in Irbil last month to find their Kurdish counterparts as new to the job as they were.
