National Police officers and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers found human remains at a site near a combat outpost in the Kamaliyah area of eastern Baghdad June 3 after receiving a tip from a local citizen.

National Policemen from 4th Brigade, 1st National Police Division, and Soldiers from 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, found the site that consisted of 10 to 12 bodies in a water-filled well-like grave.

Based on the varying states of decay, it appears that the remains are approximately two years old. Iraqi Police officials are investigating the incident.

“Our hearts go out to the families and friends of the Iraqi citizens found in this despicable grave,” said Maj. Joey Sullinger, a spokesperson for 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. “Criminals and extremists continue to show no regard for the sanctity of human life or capacity for a peaceful resolution to their problems.”

MNF-I

When the cowards kill us, they give us more reasons to go forward

Khalaf Ibrahim Ali, greets Capt. Quinn Eddy, commander, Company B, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division during a recent visit. Ali, a Sons of Iraq leader in Hawijah, Iraq, shot and killed a suicide bomber, Apr. 2, who was attempting to assassinate him.

Khalaf Ibrahim Ali had just finished checking up on his fellow Sons of Iraq around the city. It was April 2. The day was turning out to be another hot one in Hawijah, located approximately 60 miles south of Kirkuk City in the Kirkuk province. He had just sat down to cool-off with an ice cream when a young man he did not recognize approached. In a blink-of-an-eye, Ali would be wrestling with a suicide bomber bent on killing him.

“I heard him ask someone if I was Abuna,” Ali, 54, said. Abuna (Arabic for our father), is Ali’s nickname. And then Ali noticed how nervous this person appeared, sweat visible on his face and clothing, and how one half of his body did not appear normal…”much larger and bumpy,” is how he described it. “I looked into his eyes, and saw fear.” Ali’s gut told him to react to a threat. “I saw his arm moving by his side and his hand was squeezing something.” What Ali saw was the suicide bomber’s failed attempts to trigger an improvised explosive device strapped to his upper body. It malfunctioned. This opportunity allowed Ali to fire a round from his weapon into the attacker’s chest. At the conclusion of this encounter; a suicide bomber and an innocent bystander would be killed.

Ali was back to work the next day. Undaunted by this and other failed attempts on his life in recent months…these attacks and those against other SoIs in the area, seem to fuel his determination further. “If those that try to kill me think that I am afraid…they are wrong,” the father of 11 children said. He believes it is the extremists that fear the SoI’s who number over 7,000 in Hawijah.

“They are trying to stop Sahwah efforts here. They will not,” he said. Sahwah is what the locals refer to reconciliation efforts here, also known as Musalaha elsewhere. “When the cowards kill us, they give us more reasons to go forward.”

He is confident that Sahwah will succeed and he encourages anyone who may be undecided to “give up their arms and join their brothers in their efforts to take their villages, towns, and cities back from terrorists who, kill us, our wives, our children, our dreams and our future,” he said.

While his men consider him a hero, Ali considers his coalition brothers the heroes, referring to Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division whose area of operation includes the city of Hawijah. “Lt. Col. Vanek and Capt. Eddy are the heroes. Their Soldiers continue to risk their lives to help us establish peace here and are always doing good for our people and assisting in their efforts to rebuild…we owe them so much…they are the true heroes,” he said.

The heroes Ali credits are; Lt. Col. Christopher Vanek commander of 1-87, and Capt. Quinn Eddy, commander, Bravo Company, 1-87.

Since Sahwah’s inception in December 2007, overall violence in this Sunni-Arab dominated portion of northeastern Iraq, has experienced nearly an 80 percent drop in activity…Sons of Iraq continue to sign up throughout the Kirkuk Province numbering over 9,000 to-date, according to Maj. Sean Wilson, 1-10th Mtn. Div., public affairs officer.

DVIDS
By Staff Sgt. Margaret C. Nelson
115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

“We got a guy with an AK-47 400 meters from your position,” crackled over the patrol leader’s radio.

Chief Warrant Officer Byung Kim, a Marine from Alexander, Virginia shouted for everyone to “Get down.”

Kim was leading a group of 20 Afghan national army soldiers up a mountain to Combat Outpost Warheit in Nuristan province, Afghanistan, when the report came over his radio March 2. Kim and the Afghan national army works with Bravo Troop, 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment (Airborne) to help spread Islamic Republic of Afghanistan influence in a remote part of Afghanistan.

Before Kim’s patrol left Forward Operating Base Keating, the forward operating base was placed on high alert after a Taliban radio communication was intercepted. Extra vehicles were set around the perimeter with 50 Cal. machine guns and Mark 19 grenade launchers locked and loaded.

Two days earlier near the same location a large scale fire fight broke out between a patrol from Bravo Troop and Taliban extremists.

Kim continued the mission after the radio report – a squad from Bravo Troop was in an over-watch position covering the patrols movement. The individual spotted with an AK-47 disappeared back into the mountain side.

Kim and the 20 ANA Soldiers walked three and half hours up the mountain to check on ANA soldiers living at COP Warheit. The patrol reached COP Warheit safely by lunch and left shortly after.

“I just wanted to go up and see how my ANA Soldiers were doing,” explained Kim.

Combat Outpost Warheit is nestled near the top of a mountain. The muddy-slushy trails leading in and out of Warheit are worn into the snow-covered hillside by patrolling Soldiers. When Kim and the rest of the patrol left FOB Keating the temperature was in the low 70’s. By the time the patrol got near the top of the mountain the patrol was struggling through snow drifts three feet deep.

The surrounding mountains dominating COP Warheit’s landscape are covered in snow. Large tree covered valleys, rivers and towns dot the landscape below. The outpost is so remote supplies can only be delivered by helicopter. The other option of hand carrying supplies from valley floor from FOB Keating isn’t feasible.

Bravo Troop manages both FOB Keating and COP Warheit. The Soldiers work side by side with their ANA counterparts.

“We fight together. We patrol together. We live together,” said Sgt. 1st Class Mike Burns, platoon sergeant for 1st Platoon.

Bravo Troop even shares showers with ANA Soldiers at FOB Keating because of the limited facilities in the remote area.

“The hardest part of being up here is not being able to shower,” explained Burns, who’s last shower was 29 days ago. 1st Platoon has been operating out of COP Warheit. The outpost’s only running water is the melting snow line.

“We have Spartan living up here,” said Burns. “I think my soldiers and myself like it a little bit better because it’s away from the flagpole. Not that we relax more but that we have a tendency to govern ourselves a little bit different.”

A platoon from Bravo Troop rotates monthly to COP Warheit along with a platoon of ANA Soldiers. The Soldiers help provide over watch security for FOB Keating and patrols in the valley below.

“Probably the most important thing we also do is provide a link to the local population with coalition forces,” explained Burns, from Indiana.

Bravo Company and the ANA are helping keep the peace between the villages of Nagar, Papristan, Jimjuz, Binuz, upper and lower Kamidesh.
The villages have been fighting amongst each other long before coalition forces entered the area.

“You see that village over there,” pointed Burns. “The buildings were destroyed and the farms were mined by the other villages. The Kushto tribe used to live in those homes. The only thing left standing is that mosque. They now live over behind the next ridge.”

1st Platoon and ANA met with the local village elders to help promote local development and build working relationships amongst the villages and coalition forces. ANA Soldiers also hand out humanitarian aid supplies to help the local villagers during the winter season.

“The village elders tend to support us,” explained Burns, “but their sons want to declare jihad against us. The village elders say ‘You can’t declare jihad because they (coalition forces) haven’t broken any Islamic laws.”

The fighting amongst the villages, and also foreign fighters who enter the area to attack coalition forces, has slowed down during the winter months.

“They’re fair weather warriors in a manner of speaking,” said Burns. “They’re not going to go out in the bad weather. The snow limits their movement. So they’re going to hunker down for the winter for the most part.”

The receding snow line around COP Warheit marks the approaching spring and the beginning of a new fighting season.

“They’ll (foreign fighters) regroup, resupply and when spring comes they’ll come back with fresh fighters,” explained Burns. “We’ll be ready for them.”

1st Platoon only had one day at COP Warheit left before they were flown to FOB Keating. Soldiers from Bravo Troop have endured one fighting season in Afghanistan this deployment, and have one more to go before they can head home.

“In the ten months we’ve been here we improved the outpost and our relationships with the locals, explained Burns. “The progress takes a lot of hard work, but we’re getting there.

DVIDS
By Army Staff Sgt. Brandon Aird
173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs

Terrorists launched 12 combined mortar and rocket attacks attacks into Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s operational environment beginning at approximately 6 a.m. March 25.

Among the multiple attacks were 107 mm rockets were fired toward Baghdad’s International Zone, 81 mm mortars were fired at Forward Operating Base Falcon, 107 mm rockets were fired at Forward Operating Base Rustamiyah, 60 mm mortars were fired at Joint Security Station Thawra 1, and 60 mm mortars were fired at Joint Security Station SUJ.
The attacks resulted in limited civilian injuries and minor damage to buildings and vehicles.

“Extremists continue to fire indiscriminately from the vicinity of Sadr City putting the residents of Baghdad at risk,” said Col. Allen Batschelet, chief of staff, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. “The vast majority of Iraqis want security and stability. Coalition forces want the same, a better future for all Iraqis.”

MNF-I

AQI running like the cowards they are.

MNF-I
(Story by Fred W. Baker III, American Forces Press Service)

A surge in military operations and a shift in local support in northern Iraq has driven many al Qaeda fighters out of cities that once provided them safe haven and into the desert, or even out of the country, a commander in the region said Monday.
Citizens in the four-province region of Multi-National Division – North have begun shifting their support to Coalition and Iraqi forces in “droves,” and security gains are increasingly putting extremists on the run with no clear place to go to be safe, said Army Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, commander of Multi-National Division – North and the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division. The northern division is about the size of Pennsylvania and includes Diyala, Salahuddin, Ninevah and Tamim provinces.

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