Hezbollah is the Iranian front group in Lebanon. They’ve moved into Iraq, due to their superior training ans experience against the Israelis and now are trying to create the fiction that they are a home-grown organization. They are part of the Mahdi Army Special Groups and directed by Iran.

Coalition forces captured a suspected propaganda specialist of the Hezbollah Brigades early Monday morning in the New Baghdad district of Baghdad.

Based on intelligence information, Coalition forces targeted the location of a suspected propaganda expert affiliated with the Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq. Information taken from suspected criminals already in custody indicate that the man uploads web sites with imagery and video taken from attacks on Iraqi Security and Coalition forces. Reports indicate this is part of a propaganda effort in order to earn money and support from their Iranian financiers.

Coalition forces entered the targeted individual’s location without incident. Following questioning, the suspect’s wife told forces her husband was the wanted man, after which the man relented and was detained.

Intelligence indicates that Kata’ib Hezbollah or Hezbollah Brigades is an offshoot of Iranian-trained Special Groups.

MNF-I

Prior to fighting breaking out in Kadhamiyah, there were no signs of the possibility of special group cells targeting Iraqi security and coalition forces. The biggest threat at that time appeared to be vehicle borne improvised explosive devices.

However, once violence began in Basra and east Baghdad, local citizens in the area began acting differently themselves. Apparently, criminal elements began spreading the word to the local Iraqis to go into their homes and not come out.

These criminals even marched in Kadhamiyah chanting, “Death to Maliki. Death to Maliki.”

Coalition forces even received a tip March 28 that ISF checkpoints would come under attack, said 1st Lt. Sam Rosenberg, a native of Fort Myers, Fla., platoon leader for 2nd Platoon, Company D, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment. In response, three platoons pushed out into sector and took their positions to help reinforce the checkpoints – where they sat for a few hours until it was determined there would not be an attack.

“The streets were empty, but it was quiet and the (Iraqi army) was doing what they were supposed to be doing,” said Capt. Brad Henry, a native of Andover Township, N.J., who is the commander of Co. D, 1-502nd Inf. Regt. “It was weird, but nothing was out of the ordinary.”

Once Henry got back to the base, he received another tip that 20 to 25 men were massing in Kadhamiyah. He ordered the company’s 4th Platoon to investigate the tip. As soon as the platoon came to the intersection, they were ambushed by special group criminals.

“The entire area basically blew up,” Rosenberg said. “They called out ‘we are in contact; we are in contact.’”

Fighting Breaks Out
Fighting broke out throughout the area. The platoon was attacked with rocket propelled grenades and PKCs, and immediately started laying down fire on positively identified enemy combatants, said 1st Lt. Paul Brown, a native of Canfield, Ohio, who is the platoon leader for 4th Platoon. “As soon as my gunner was able to PID a guy, he just started engaging him. They did an awesome job.”

“We weren’t running from the fight,” said Henry. “We were going to secure the intersection and engage targets of opportunity.”

With Brown’s platoon under contact and decisively laying down the enemy, Rosenberg sent his platoon forward to support the Soldiers in their engagements.

“We sent our trucks right in behind them,” Rosenberg said. “They had interlocking fire on the enemy. There was a lot of fire, mostly RPGs.”

As the platoon moved toward the site, its Soldiers were also fired upon at an intersection. With the amount of RPGs and smalls-arms fire being fired, said Henry, and the numerous caches hidden by the criminals in the area, the right side of the road caught fire.

The Soldiers of Rosenberg’s platoon then saw an opportunity to push forward into a market to get a better angle of fire on the enemy. Fourth platoon shifted fire as Rosenberg’s platoon pushed up into what they now call “Death Valley.”

“On the right side, there was a huge fire, and to my left were alleyways,” Rosenberg said. The Soldiers pulled security down the alleyways and were receiving fire from there also.

“It was a shooting gallery; guys were popping out of everywhere,” he said. Criminals were popping out from corners and firing rounds, while others stood atop balconies and rooftops and snuck in pop shots; however, it had no effect on the Soldiers.

“The gunners did an awesome job,” said Rosenberg. Initially, the platoon sergeant’s truck was in the lead.

One RPG hit right in front of his truck; then, as the criminal came back from behind his corner to fire, he was hit with .50-caliber rounds. The gunner, Pfc. Hunter Bruns, saved his fellow comrades from being hit with an RPG.

“He saved my truck,” said Rosenberg.

“Pfc. Bruns was absolutely incredible,” said Rosenberg. “He was unloading on guys 150 meters away from him and shooting controlled pairs at their head.”

He said he really couldn’t say enough about how his platoon and the rest of the company performed that night and over the next couple of days.

“My guys did awesome. With the exception of fours guys, it was everyone’s first time in contact,” said Rosenberg, “so you expect everyone to be nervous, but their training kicked in. Everyone was calm, controlled and did their job perfectly. You’ve got 18- and 19-year-old Soldiers dealing with getting shot at for the first time, and they did as well as anybody could have ever asked.”

For Pfc. Eric Weekly, a native of Urbana, Iowa, and a gunner for 1st Platoon, Co. D, it was his first time coming into contact with the enemy – and he made the most of it.

“We were sitting on Route Vernon facing northeast and an RPG flew over the truck from the west,” he said. “We swung around to PID the guy, and he shot another one. We got positive identification and engaged him with about ten rounds of .50-cal. and shot the guy as he went to shoot the third one.”

Altogether, Rosenberg said he believes the company killed an estimated 12 terrorists.

Iraqi Army Stands Firm
However, the U.S. troops weren’t the only ones who stayed in the fight, doing what they could to eliminate any enemy activity.

Henry said he believes the special groups criminals expected the Iraqi army soldiers from the 5th vattalion, 22nd brigade, 6th Iraqi army division, to lay down their arms; however, that was not the case. Once the terrorists saw that the IA Soldiers were staying, they had to change their game plan.

“They proved they were there to stay and fight,” Henry said. “The first night out, all their guys were manning their (tactical checkpoints); they were securing the intersections they needed to secure.”

The Iraqi army battalion is responsible for manning checkpoints in the out muhallahs around Kadhamiyah, said Henry, who added he felt they did a good job not letting anyone within.

They secured alleyways, which the criminals were using to maneuver and fire upon Iraqi security and coalition forces, Henry said.

“They are reliable,” he declared

Perhaps it is a true testament of how far the Iraqi army has come. Nearly a year ago, when Co. D, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division controlled the area, the Soldiers also faced a similar attack from special groups’ forces, said Henry.

The Soldiers in the unit went to arrest a group of criminals at a building in Kadhamiyah and were ambushed as well, he said.

At that time, however, the IA did not help with the fight at all.

“We didn’t see any of that happen this time. They were here to fight,” said Henry.

The IA soldiers played vital role securing a key checkpoint during the engagements, he said. Along the Tigris River, on one of the main routes in Kadhamiyah, the IA secured the tactical control point, which allowed freedom of movement for coalition and ISF to push combat power into the fight at any given time.

“I think the IA did very well during the incidents,” Brown said. “They manned their checkpoints and didn’t run and leave. They did what they thought was right. The Iraqi army withstood enemy contact and helped secure key terrain during the conflict.”

Troops Avoid Trap
The attacks set by the criminal elements were very complex, to say the least, said Henry, adding that he believes the special groups set themselves up around the Kadhamiyah shrine and set up boundaries around them as their defensive perimeter.

The terrorists used explosively formed projectiles as a protective barrier on the outside perimeter, he added, hoping coalition and ISF would cross their outer boundary, at which point they would come under attack from EFPs and other explosives, with RPGs and small-arms fire used as their inner perimeter security.

However, that was not the case.

“We smacked them pretty good,” said Henry. “We were very careful not to push into their perimeter.”

As a result of the damage inflicted on the criminal forces, Henry said he believes they have either left town or gone into hiding, which is allowing life to get back to normal in Kadhamiyah.

Local citizens are once again moving throughout the area, and the shops are open. The markets are not as busy as they usually are, which is understandable because the people are still a bit apprehensive.

Iraqi army soldiers will continue to man checkpoints in Kadhamiyah to deter any enemy combatants from entering the area as the daily lives of the people return to normal, said Brown.

DVIDS
By Sgt. James Hunter
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division

AP reported on March 26 “Mahdi Army commanders have told the AP that the militia has recently taken delivery of new weapons supplied by backers in Iran. The arsenal, they said, included roadside bombs, anti-aircraft guns and Soviet-designed Grad rockets.

The United States has long accused Iran of providing Shiite militias in Iraq with arms and training. Iran denies it.”

News from Iraq continues to suggest that the Iraqi Army and National Police are holding their own in their fight against the Sadr Revolt. Coalition Forces are assisting where asked but the Iraqis are doing the bulk of the fighting.

Fighting continues in Basra with United States air assets visible for the first time. On March 24, aerial assets struck at a group of IED emplacers, in the Al Hyyaniyah neighborhood and killed five. The Air Force reports “a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fired cannon rounds on to enemy combatants and an enemy vehicle in the vicinity of Basrah. The mission was reported as successful by a JTAC. A Navy F/A-18 Hornet fired cannon rounds onto an enemy building containing enemy combatants in the vicinity of Basrah. The mission was declared successful by a JTAC.”

CNN reports that the Iraqi parliament is meeting to discuss the fighting in Basra. A weekend curfew has been imposed on several cities in the south. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has offered a ceasefire for humanitarian reasons in Basra, and extended a deadline for “rogue” or “outlaw” militia elements to lay down their arms. A guns-for-cash program has also been set up to allow locals to turn in illegal weapons and receive payment for them.

In Baghdad, U.S. Troops and Iraqi security forces have been engaged in securing police stations and outposts, as well as hunting down the terrorists responsible for the many rocket and mortar attacks on the Green Zone and other parts of Baghdad in the last four days.

To this point, fighting has taken place primarily in three neighborhoods, New Baghdad, Sadr City and Kadamiyah. There have been isolated fights in other areas of the city but the main violence has been in these Shia neighborhoods.

About 79 terrorists have been killed in these attacks on Iraqi and U.S. Forces. Many Iraqis and at least five Americans have been killed in the same fighting.

Further south, in Hillah and Kut, Iraqi forces supported by U.S. Special Forces advisors, have been fighting and winning. The cost has been high for the Iraqis, with 8 policemen killed in one battle alone. Reports indicate at least 25 terrorists killed, and many other arrested by the police including a group that had taken refuge in a mosque.

There are scattered reports of violence in other cities in the south, including Nasiryia.

Additional information and analysis may be found at the Long War Journal.

Moqtada al-Sadr has called upon his followers to engage in civil resistance. In reality, his Iranian masters have called out their troops in an effort to demonstrate that the Iraqi government cannot secure its own country, that the Coalition – the United States – is merely propping up a puppet government. This is Iraq’s Tet Offensive.

Remember Tet. We wiped out the Viet Cong entirely and set the North Vietnamese back a year or more on their plans for conquest. Yet, due to the mood of the media, we were told that we lost those battles, that the entire war was lost. It may become a similar sentiment for today’s media in the next few weeks.

The situation on the ground is this: Sadr’s people control much of eastern Baghdad and have moved south into the Shia heartland, Kut, Hillah and Basra. These areas are not traditionally a place where he has influence. Other Shia leaders have been influential in the south.

The Mahdi Army is armed with rifles, grenades, rockets and IED’s, much of Iranian origin. The vast majority of Sadr’s followers are cannon fodder, with little or no training. A cadre has received training, in Iran, or in Iraq by Iranians or Iraqis trained in Iran. It is likely that some of them are also deserters from the Iraqi security forces or were kicked out of those forces.

Basra is the flash point. The city was under nominal Iraqi national control. In fact, the city was run by a number of criminal gangs and several militias. Many of those criminal elements were part of or aligned with the Mahdi Army.

Iran would like to control the south. It is oil rich, and Iran is running out of its own supplies. In addition, it would cut an old enemy, Iraq, off from its only link to the sea and sea borne commerce.

North of Basra, in Kut and Hillah, the Mahdi Army is going to have some difficulty. Both the Iraqi Army and the other Shia militias will be opposing them and the fight should be fairly short and sweet. Some of the fighting may not be with the Mahdi Army since this is also the area where a doomsday cult called the Soldiers of Heaven has rebelled twice in the last two years, suffering incredible losses but still being a threat.

In Basra itself, the fighting will be house to house. The Iraqi Army will win, but Basra will be their battle of Fallujah. At this point the British have only provided air support but that may change. Logistics and medical support would be logical additions to the support package. British troops may not be involved in the fighting, though it would not surprise me to see them provide indirect fire from artillery.

Baghdad is another matter. Iraqi troops will be taking the lead here but Americans will be involved in the battles. Our civil affairs units have had six months and more to work their magic and I would suspect that Sadr’s support has wained a bit.

Sadr is not in Iraq. The last information I saw said that he was engaged in religious studies in Iran. Without Sadr on the scene, the willingness of the entire Mahdi Army to fight is certainly in doubt.

Here are the reports from Multi National Force – Iraq:

March 24: 5 IED emplacers killed by an airstrike in Basra

March 25: US soldier killed by hostile fire in Baghdad

March 25: Attacks from Sadr City strike Baghdad

March 25: ISF, Coalition forces reinforce three checkpoints

The press have many more reports, but with little detail as yet. This will be the first piece in a series as I cover the Sadr Revolt so please check back for more information as it becomes available.