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Gunbattles welcome Strykers back to Iraq

Aug-24-2006 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

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MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

Stryker soldiers from Fort Lewis are patrolling new territory in some of Baghdad's toughest neighborhoods, but they're also running down Iraqi insurgents in some old familiar places in Mosul.

The 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division has two battalions' worth of troops – about 1,400 in all – in the capital as part of the big security sweep under way there.

The rest of the brigade is 225 miles to the north, where they've been joined by two other battalions to cover Mosul, Qayyarah, Tal Afar and Sinjar all the way to the Syrian border, officials said.

It's the same territory the Arrowhead brigade troops covered on their first deployment, from November 2003 to October 2004.

Lt. Joshua Johnson, a platoon leader in the 18th Engineer Company in Mosul, is on his first trip but said most of his men are making a return engagement.

"They remember a lot of the places where they were," Johnson said in an interview by phone Tuesday. "They said they remember certain places being pretty crazy, but a lot of those have calmed down."

This in-depth article continues...


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