Iraq and Afghanistan Updates

Army, Jul 2007

As the final surge of new troops arrived in country, the Army's counterinsurgency (COIN) efforts in Iraq drew anticipated fire from insurgents, particularly in the form of roadside bombs and suicide bombers, in the first two weeks of June.

At least 16 American servicemembers were killed in Iraq during the first week of the month, and casualties in May were the third highest monthly total since the war began. But with the troop surge complete and the total complement of U.S. forces in Iraq finally at 150,000 strong, Gen. David H. Petraeus began his most aggressive COIN maneuvers since taking command of Multi-National Force-Iraq, dispatching American troops into more remote-and potentially influential-locales in and around Baghdad.

By positioning soldiers in areas controlled by insurgents and successfully influencing local sheiks and tribal leaders, as reported by Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, outgoing commander of Multi-National security Transition Command in Iraq, it's clear that Gen. Petraeus' COIN strategy has commenced the long process of turning the tide of the war. Indeed, the recent stepped up insurgent attacks within the Green Zone have been seen by some as diversionary efforts to back Coalition forces out of those spots previously controlled by insurgents.

Meanwhile, with congressional passage of President George W. Bush's supplemental spending bill containing no timetable for withdrawal, and with some of the bill's benchmarks for Iraqi progress fuzzy at best, the Washington Post recently reported that some "senior commanders, strategists and analysts" have discussed a "postoccupation troop presence."

Preemptive Offensive Foils Taliban. Coalition forces in Afghanistan have taken the war to the Taliban, Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill, commander of NATO Forces, reported in early June. In a Department of the Army news release, Gen. McNeill said that by "prosecuting our strategy, not waiting for the insurgent to prosecute his," Coalition forces have stymied the Taliban's own offensive strategies.

Gen. McNeill's preemptive measures have been gearing up since February, when military leaders in country began to anticipate a spring offensive by the Taliban. The sizable presence of International security Assistance forces has precluded suicide bombing attacks and improvised explosive devices from turning Taliban actions into a full-blown offensive, according to Gen. McNeill. Moreover, the Coalition's offensive has served to at least partially empower the new government in the province, which Gen. McNeill said has "made life a whole lot better for the governor of Helmand province."

Specifically, Gen. McNeill referred to Operation Achilles, a project that will refurbish a hydroelectric dam that provides electricity to most of Kandahar province. He added that the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai continues to make progress despite facing challenges.

In other promising news, Afghan National Police and Coalition forces, acting on tips from local villagers, uncovered what has been described as "a massive munitions cache" in Paktya province. Local elders assisted in removal of the weapons from caves.

Meanwhile, Afghan National security Forces and paratroopers provided security for American Army medical care staff who administered preventive medical attention to 365 Afghans in Helmand province. The two-day village medical engagement was run by Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.

DoD Blocks Sites. The Defense Department has blocked access to 12 popular Internet sites from DoD-owned computers. Military officials called for the block because of bandwidth/network management issues "to prevent strains on the global information grid and to assure timely and secure capabilities to support war-fighting, intelligence and business missions," according to a DoD news release. U.S. troops, however, will still be able to access the sites on nonmilitary computers.

The sites are:

YouTube.com, Pandora.com, Photobucket.com, Hi5.com, MySpace.com, Live365.com, Metacafe.com, MTV.com, iFilm.com, BlackPlanet.com, StupidVideos.com and Filecabi.com.

Officials emphasized that it is not a comment on the content of the sites.

The block affects only DoD computers and local area networks that are part of the department's global information grid.

GB Nerve Agent Weapons Disposal. Crews at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, Ark., safely destroyed the last GB nerve agent-filled weapon in its stockpile in May. GB is also known as sarin.

A team from Pine Bluff Chemical Activity transported the last container filled with GB rockets to the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.

The facility has stored, transported and disposed of approximately 960,000 pounds of GB agent since March 2005.

The chemical weapons consisted of 90,409 rockets and two, 1-ton containers.

The GB-filled munitions were just the beginning. Rockets filled with VX, a nerve agent, are scheduled for disposal this fall, followed by VX-filled land mines. After that, bulk containers filled with the blister agents HD/HT will be disposed of.