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Troops hit Baghdad streets to contain violence

Aug- 7-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By Rawya Rageh, Associated Press

BAGHDAD — U.S. soldiers sent to reinforce security in Baghdad were seen for the first time on the streets of the capital as Iraqi police used loudspeakers to reassure people that the Americans were there to protect them. [...]

With Sunni-Shiite killings on the rise, about 3,700 soldiers of the Army’s 172nd Stryker Brigade were sent from northern Iraq to bolster U.S. and Iraqi security forces that were struggling to contain the violence in Baghdad.

Several Stryker armored fighting vehicles were seen Saturday in Baghdad’s mostly Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliyah, one of the most dangerous areas of the city. Iraqi police used loudspeakers to encourage residents to reopen their shops and go about their business normally because the soldiers would protect them.

U.S. commanders hope the presence of heavily armed Americans will intimidate sectarian death squads believed behind many of the killings and reassure Iraqis — especially Sunni Arabs — that they will be protected by Iraq’s heavily Shiite security forces.

Moving the Stryker brigade to Baghdad, however, meant drawing down — at least temporarily — the U.S. military presence in northern Iraq. Another U.S. command, the 3rd Stryker Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, has been sent to Mosul to replace the unit redeployed to Baghdad.

The 172nd brigade also had subordinate units scattered over a wide area, including routes used by foreign fighters entering the country from Syria.


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