Iraqi Forces Step Forward

Army, Jun 2006

Coalition forces are continuing to turn over security to Iraqi troops. On May 2, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), turned over responsibility for much of Kirkuk's battle space to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division. The American and Iraqi units will, however, continue to train together and the U.S. unit will still support the Iraqis as they take control of the area.

On April 15, Iraqi soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, assumed control of part of Iraq's Salah al Din Province from the Army's 1-8 Combined Arms Battalion. The area encompasses Balad, Duluyah and Yethrib, as well as the smaller villages surrounding these cities.

Iraqi troops are also performing well in the field. On April 27, Iraqi security forces quickly responded to a series of attacks in Baqubah in eastern Diyala province, after several locations came under mortar and small-arms attack. The security forces killed 21 insurgents and captured 43. Seven Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded. Two civilians were also killed and four were wounded during the fighting.

American and coalition forces continue to fight the insurgency, make arrests and help civilians. On April 27, American forces rescued a kidnapped Iraqi civilian in Samarra. Soldiers on patrol from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, stopped the kidnappers' vehicles after witnessing an exchange of weapons between two cars. The vehicles took off, but the soldiers radioed a different patrol which stopped the cars and released the bound and gagged kidnap victim.

On April 25, coalition forces killed 12 terrorists during a raid on a safe house in Yusifiyah. After taking direct fire from the house, they returned small-arms fire and called in fire from helicopters.

On April 16, coalition forces in Iraq killed seven terrorists, five in another safe-house raid in Yusifiya and two who were planting a roadside bomb in Kirkuk province. In the Yusifiyah hideout, the troops assaulted the building after being fired on. During the assault, five terrorists, three of them wearing suicide vests, were killed; five others, one of whom was wounded, were detained. Two of the suicide bombers were killed before either could detonate his vest, and the third did detonate his vest, killing only himself and injuring no one else. No coalition members were killed in the raid.

On March 27, coalition and Iraqi forces killed a wanted extremist, Rafid Ibrahim Fattah, also known as Abu Umar al-Kurdi, during an early morning raid March 27 near Baghdad's Abu Ghraib district. Fattah had ties to Taliban members in Afghanistan, Pakistan-based extremists and al Qaeda senior leaders, including Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri. He also had ties to an Iraqi resistance group.

Mountain Lion in Afghanistan. On April 11, coalition forces and the Afghan National Army (ANA) launched "Operation Mountain Lion" to establish security, deter the reemergence of terrorism and enhance Afghanistan's sovereignty. Coalition forces killed six insurgents while conducting offensive operations in the Marawara district. Operations began with predawn airand-ground assaults in the Pech River Valley, an area notorious for terrorist activity. Soldiers from 3rd Brigade of the Afghan National Army's 203rd Corps fought alongside servicemembers from the coalition's Task Force Spartan, made up of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) and marines of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment from Task Force Lava. More than 2,500 Afghan National Army and coalition personnel were involved.

In other operations, on April 18 Afghan and coalition forces detained eight insurgents in Afghanistan's Kandahar province and thwarted two terrorist attacks the day before in Kunar province. The eight insurgents were detained during a combat operation in the Maywand district of Kandahar province. The joint operatives raided a compound in Dukah village, detaining suspected narcotics traffickers and confiscating weapons. A U.S. attack helicopter provided close-air support during the mission. On April 17 coalition forces in Kunar province killed five enemy fighters west of Asadabad.

On April 6, Afghan and coalition forces killed a senior Taliban commander and destroyed a Taliban district headquarters in southern Afghanistan. Joint coalition forces killed the senior Taliban commander in the Musa Qaleh District in northern Helmand Province. He was tied directly to dozens of improvised explosive device attacks since 2001 and was responsible for the deaths of many Afghan and coalition soldiers.

To improve the fighting skills of the ANA in joint combat operations, Afghan and coalition forces participated in platoon-level training missions in Jalalabad on April 5. About 20 soldiers of the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, joined 30 soldiers from the Afghan National Army for the joint training session to reinforce squad-level tactical skills and practice coordination among the coalition forces.