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Uncertain Allies In A Threatening Landscape

May-19-2007 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

By JANE ARRAF, IraqSlogger

Baghdad, May 17, 2007 – The Army’s Stryker vehicles are meant to be fast and agile. But with an ever-changing array of dangers on the roads in some of Baghdad’s still-volatile neighborhoods getting there is half the battle.

So on Tuesday, as brigade commander Steve Townsend went out to check on his latest battalion to arrive in Iraq the Strykers slowed to a crawl through an area known as a zone for EFPs – explosively-formed penetrators – the roadside bombs that can penetrate a tank.

They’ve been found hidden in the debris along the sides of the road in pieces of foam and chunks of concrete.

[...]

“The whole thing was an IED,” Townsend said.

We pass streets full of people – municipal street sweepers in bright yellow vests, students from Dijla University College lining up to get through the gates, woman doing their shopping. There are huge lineups for gasoline – the Army in this neighborhood has shut down black market fuel operations they believe were linked to IED emplacers, forcing cars and taxis to line up for hours at the authorized fuel stations.

Eventually the crowds thin and more and more shops are shuttered until we get to the deserted streets of Rasallah in the Baya district of West Rashid – the neighborhood has become a battle ground between Sunni extremists and Shiite militias fighting for territory.

The Strykers have been one of the Army’s great hopes – more heavily armored than humvees, they can move more quickly than tanks When they arrive and the doors open, up to 12 highly-trained, light infantry soldiers jump out. They’re used as firemen in this Baghdad surge, deployed wherever they’re needed to clear neighborhoods or conduct searches.

But in a strategy where clearing a neighborhood of insurgents is just the first step in controlling it, highly-trained, well-equipped American troops depend heavily on their Iraqi counterparts.

In this neighborhood, it’s the 2nd Battallion, 1st Brigade of the Iraqi National Police – better known as the Wolf Brigade.

[...]


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