A Battlefield Tourist

Arab Jabour

Sep 21 at 3:03am by David Tate

The battlespace for 1/30 Infantry is a place called, “Arab Jabour”.  It’s about 15km long, 5km wide, about 99% Sunni Arab and lines the Tigris River southeast of Baghdad.  The enemy for the US forces operating here is exclusively domestic Al Qaida in definition.  In reality, the enemy is actually no more than a group of criminals that have grown up here and have so much blood on their hands that it would be impossible for them to renounce AQ at this point.  The way I’ve put it together, the enemy is more like a group of spoiled thugs, used to having their way via the point of a gun, with no where to turn but to Al Qaida once Saddam’s regieme fell.

It’s also an area that has never had any real government.  A place where Baathists would come to retire.  Four of the five men, who in recent years have stepped up to help govern, have been murdered and the fifth has taken off, deciding to take his chances elsewhere.  US Civil Affairs is now trying hard to form a local government, but the process is slow.

For the most part, 1/30 doesn’t receive face-to-face contact from the enemy, dealing almost exclusively with the morale draining realities of IED attacks.  The countryside is littered with these pre-laid death traps as well as hundreds of weapons caches, many that have been found and destroyed with many more that haven’t

All of this has made Al Jabour ripe for the Concerned Citizens movement that has recently been sweeping across the country.  A populace fed up with the sheer ruthlessness that these terrorists sow upon them.  In this area alone, nearly 600 men have signed up to help protect themselves.  Led by a former Iraqi logistics officer, General Mustafa, the Concerned Citizens are making a huge contribution that is saving not only Iraqi lives, but American lives as well. 

These Concerned Citizens are doing more than just manning checkpoints that keep the roads clear of terrorists, they are in actual full contact fights with the criminal element that has made life for the common person here very deadly.  Just two nights ago, PB Murray supported a Concerned Citizens group in contact with Al Qaida with accurate mortar fire that was directed by one of the Concerned Citizens using a cell phone.  Cell phones have actually become the number one weapon against the terrorists as networks of informants and “bird dogs” keep the Americans fully informed of what’s going on in this sector. 

All of the killers here are well-known by the people, who grew up around them, making this area of operations different than any of the others I’ve encountered.  General Mustafa’s men have even been given their own chunk of battlespace to control, which has freed up the undermanned Americans to pursue AQ in other directions.

It still comes at a price for these Iraqis.  On Thursday, two were killed and three wounded from a pressure plate IED as AQ steps up their attacks on the population in an attempt to intimidate the people back into submission.  Regardless, the attacks seem only to embolden the Iraqis into further cooperation with the Americans as the two forces work side-by-side for the future of this region.

The Americans have suffered as well.  In the four months of active operations, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd ID, which includes 1/30, has taken 12 KIA and 57 WIA, not to mention the incredible stress wrought on these troops who face an enemy they rarely see.  Using the sneakiest of techniques to attack the soldiers, Al Qaida is forcing the Americans to always be in tune to the fact that every step they take outside the wire, could be their last.