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U.S. troops ready to back up Iraqi security forces if necessary

Dec-15-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By CHRIS TOMLINSON, Associated Press

MOSUL, Iraq - U.S. troops won't be at the polling stations for Thursday's national elections. But they'll be close by - ready to back up Iraqi security forces if called upon.

Soldiers in Stryker armored personnel carriers, the U.S. Army's most advanced infantry vehicle with satellite-linked computers, have mapped out every polling station and listed the mobile phone numbers for local polling officials and Iraqi officers to make sure they can respond quickly.

The Americans moved into a supporting role late Wednesday after carefully coaching Iraqi police, who took up positions on rooftops, and Iraqi soldiers, who set up an outer perimeter.

As final preparations were carried out at hundreds of schools across northern Iraq, U.S. soldiers helped deliver the last of the ballot boxes and other election materials as well as food and water for Iraqi security forces.

In Mosul, Lt. Col. John Norris, commander of the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, told his staff that despite a recent drop in insurgent attacks and pledges by some groups not to disrupt the vote, all of the security forces, both American and Iraqi, needed to remain on guard.

"We've got to think worse-case scenario, and the worse-case scenario is someone sets off an explosive device that kills hundreds of people," said Norris, whose unit patrols the southern half of Mosul.

The ethnically diverse town 225 miles northwest of Baghdad has seen horrific insurgent attacks since the U.S. invasion. Mosul has distinct Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish populations, all with candidates vying for seats in the parliamentary elections which will select a government for the next four years. [...]


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