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Safety in Baghdad depends on perspective

Sep-21-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

By Anita Powell, Stars and Stripes

BAGHDAD — Purging sectarian violence from Baghdad is a slow and arduous task, as soldiers from the Fort Wainwright, Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team learned over the last week while beginning clearing operations in the areas around Sadr City.

For the last week, soldiers from 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment have painstakingly combed through homes, fields, markets and even landfills, hunting for ever-elusive evidence of sectarian violence. The effort is part of an ongoing operation, called Operation Together Forward, aimed at reducing sectarian violence in the capital.

Their labors turned up relatively little in the way of illegal weapons and high-level insurgents, and little evidence of the illegal checkpoints, secret prisons, kidnapping gangs and rampant militias that American officials and Iraqis say stalk the neighborhoods around Sadr City.

But military officials say the efforts have had some success: namely, a disruptive effect on sectarian violence in the area.

“We’re seeing results in some neighborhoods,” said brigade commander Col. Michael Shields, though he said it was too soon to make a more definite pronouncement.

Locals largely agree.

“When I heard the good news about the American operation, I felt happy,” said 67-year-old resident Jaodat Salman Saleh.


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