Task Force Marne

In efforts to secure their own neighborhoods, the Sons of Iraq (SoI) are assisting Coalition Forces by removing threats posed by improvised explosive devices and weapons caches during Operation Marne Thunderbolt.

Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division have had the assistance of SoI for more than eight months; however, utilization of the groups expanded with the beginning of the operation.

Marne Thunderbolt took Soldiers into areas of southern Arab Jabour which had never before seen a sustained Coalition presence.

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Task Force Marne

Soldiers from Battery A, 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery and the 489th Civil Affairs Battalion, a reserve unit from Knoxville, Tenn., currently attached to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, held a coordinated medical engagement at a school in Fursan, a small village east of Baghdad, Feb. 4.

Combat medics were able to help 175 people by providing minor medical treatment and assistance.

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MNF-I

Members of the Sons of Iraq (formerly known as Concerned Local Citizens) assisted Coalition Forces by discovering weapons caches and improvised explosive devices in areas south of Baghdad Feb. 2. Four weapons caches and a vehicle-borne IED were found and destroyed.

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Residents of the Zambraniyah move through a Coalition checkpoint as they return to their homes, after fleeing al-Qaeda in Iraq clashes with Coalition Forces. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Michael Paredes)

Task Force Marne

About 1,000 residents returned to Zambraniyah throughout the last week of January after learning the area had been secured by Coalition and Iraqi forces.

When heavy fighting in the Zambraniyah area broke out in early January, Coalition Forces advised families to evacuate the area to stay out of danger.

As residents fled, blending in was difficult for al-Qaeda in Iraq members, enabling Soldiers to identify and target them. Over the course of combat operations, more than 40 extremists were killed.

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I have had the opportunity to interview Brigadier General Edward Cardon, Deputy Commanding General (Support) Multi-National Division-Center(MND-C), one-on-one. We last talked in a Bloggers’ Roundtable on January 24.

My thanks to General Cardon for his time and patience with this interview and this interviewer. My thanks to Major Alayne Conway, MND-C Deputy PAO, for facilitating the interview with the telephone tag. And a great big thank you to both of them and all the men and women of Task Force Marne for their service to the United States.
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