A Battlefield Tourist

Quiet Times in the “Triangle of Death”

Oct 30 at 9:09pm by David Tate

The Blackhawk landed hard, forcing the men inside to grab hold of something.  “Go! Go! Go!”, broke through the night, above the thundering sound of the rotor blades overhead.  The choppers quickly emptied as 10 Americans, 10 Iraqis, a translator and myself rushed toward the nearest home, surrounding it. 

Within seconds, the sound of doors being kicked in echoed through the night as soldiers entered the house from all directions.  Inside they found only an old woman seemingly pleading her case.  With guns drawn, the soldiers worked their way quickly through the two story house.  They’re looking for several insurgents, that a “concerned citizen” claims, are using the small group of homes as a hideout.

“I got ‘em!”, yelled one of the soldiers using night vision goggles to look into the darkness leading away from the house.   “Should I go get ‘em?”.  The soldiers run into the night and across tilled farmland, hard as cement, lined by canals and ditches. Then there’s a gunshot.  “Get down!  Get down!” yelled an American as an Iraqi soldier ran forward. Fearing suicide vests, the Iraqi stripped the men to their shorts before marching them back to the house.

AO Baghdad Eagle

A typical combat operation in South Baghdad:  Half American, half Iraqi.  It’s a recipe that makes it no accident the infamous, “Triangle of Death” has been largely quiet now since the middle of summer 2007.  Mahmudiyah, one of the anchor cities that forms that deadly chunk of land, is also the home base for the Iraqi Army’s 4th Brigade, 6th Division, also known as the Baghdad Eagle Brigade.

For more than a year now, the Baghdad Eagle Brigade has been working alongside an American infantry battalion at all levels of military and civil operations.  That partnership has been tasked to 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery, Second Brigade of the Tenth Mountain Division since the summer of 2006. Overall, this Brigade has spent more time in Iraq than any other brigade during this conflict.  It’s also the second time this artillery battalion has been to war in Iraq as an motorized infantry battalion.  After 15 months of war, the unit returned to the United States beginning in October 2007.

The Baghdad Eagle Brigade’s area of operations is called AO Baghdad Eagle.  The northern boundary borders Al Rasheed, Baghdad’s southern border.  It then stretches southwest through Yusifiyah to the Euphrates. The southern border goes through Latifiyah all the way to Highway 1 (Route Tampa), making up the eastern border.  Bisecting the area is the Hillah Highway (Route Jackson), which connects Baghdad to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.  Mahmudiyah, which is near the center of the AO, is a city of roughly 150,000 people and is the region’s political and economic center.  In all, AO Baghdad Eagle is more than 370 square kilometers with a total population of over 200,000 people.

Artillery to Infantry

The primary mission of 2/15 FA is to secure South Baghdad (South Baghdad is the area of Baghdad Province south of the city) and prevent the flow of arms into the city of Baghdad itself. This was the primary mission for all the AOs I visited, which transversed south of Baghdad from west to east. When 2/15 FA first arrived in Mahmudiyah in the summer of 2006, daily life on patrol was slow, deadly and difficult. The Iraqi Army in the area was disorganized and ineffective.  Deep buried IEDs were becoming efficient killers.  One soldier recounted seeing Baghdad Eagle Brigade’s former executive officer get killed by one: “It flipped the Humvee into the air.  It was unbelievable.” The IED threat was so great, the Americans and their Iraqi partners were unable to push to the Euphrates for months.  Bodies were pulled from the river that runs through Mahmudiyah on a daily basis.  A pre-dominantly Shia city, Mahmudiyah is surrounded by Sunni farmland giving the overall population nearly a 70/30 split, Shia to Sunni. Mahmudiyah sees its share of ethnic cleansing.

Early on, the coalition faced an enemy that was more likely to have roots with Al Qaida. That has since changed in the last few months as encounters with Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM) forces have slowly increased.  A third category that’s being monitored is called, “Special JAM”.  This is the loose term applied to what are known as the rouge elements of Jaish al- Mahdi. The military believes some of these groups are definitely aligned with strict religious principles, but many others are simply out for money and power.

When 2/15 FA partnered up with the 5,000 man Baghdad Eagle Brigade, it paired a battalion with a brigade in a full-scale mentoring program.  The Americans supply the Iraqis with support, advisement and advanced infantry training.  This includes the addition of a newly created Iraqi Commando course (the US describes this as a mix between the US Army Air Assault and Ranger schools) and the Iraqi Warrior Leaders course, which is designed to instruct the NCO role on the battlefield. Getting the NCO idea to stick has been difficult in Iraq.  When the soldiers of 2/15 FA first tried to introduce it, they were met with stiff resistance from the Ministry of Defense who did not want to either recognize or promote the NCO corps.  It’s a position which has changed over the course of the year.  On the ground level, there was difficulty convincing the troops of the role non-commissioned officers play in an army. That too, has changed over the course of the year, much of it due to strong, non-sectarian leadership. 

The men spearheading reconciliation in this area are the commanding officer of the Baghdad Eagle Brigade, Brigadier General Ali Jassam Mohammed Hasan al-Frazi and his civilian partner, Morid al-Amri, mayor of Mahmudiyah.  The two men, both Shia, have extensive ties to the Sunni community. General Ali has a reputation for cracking down hard on sectarian issues, drumming more than a dozen such problems out of his brigade. Mayor Morid has a reputation for bringing the local sheikhs together.  Combined with a drive by the Americans to help establish local government, in their assessement, the three entities are collectively making visibal progress.

The Strategy

With the long term goal of the parent unit, Second Brigade Combat Team, being to drive a wedge between the populace and the terrorists, the brigade pushed 1-89 Cavalry west in September 2006.  They spent uncountable hours clearing routes and establishing battle positions along major supply routes in an effort to keep them clear.  Dozens of battle positions were ultimately formed, as were at least five Combat Out Posts (COP) and a second Forward Operating Base in Lutifiyah.  The battalion’s leadership is following a “clear and hold” strategy, that in the end, is designed to give Iraqis the confidence of security. The Americans believe it is the confidence of security that will embolden the Iraqis to begin standing up for themselves. The approach works on building relationships, not only at the command level, but all the way down to the squad level.

The unit began establishing ties with the tribal elders west of Route Tampa, which has culminated in a very successful “Concerned Citizens” movement that has been quietly spreading east from Anbar’s success.  These armed “neighborhood watches” currently maintain security in many of the rural areas, primarily on roads and other checkpoint setups.  To date more than 16,000 men have signed up with nearly 9,000 under contract.  Efforts to the east of Route Tampa have not been as successful. 

I was given the overview of AO Eagle from Command Sgt. Major Michael Grinston. He describes his unit’s success, and ultimately the Baghdad Eagle Brigade’s success, to integration with the Iraqi Army and physically visiting every spot in the area of operations.  “I don’t know of a single square kilometer that we haven’t walked.”  Grinston believes this overall approach is what is helping the Iraqis stand up and keep his soldiers alive.  Mortar attacks are down 60% or more.  One estimate puts active insurgent mortar teams currently at one.  That’s nine less than last year.  IEDs, the number one killer of troops here have also dropped of “significantly”.

Grinston says his unit has tried to, “include the Iraqis in everything we do.”.  He added, “When we say we’re partnered, we’re partnered 100%”.  In the year they’ve been together, the combined force has done 55 brigade level operations, up from one the year before. The Iraqis are also planning and executing independent operations that are monitored by the Americans using unmanned aerial vehicles.  Other operations have been executed in Mahmudiyah itself, where the population and the majority of soldiers share the same sect in faith. While the officer ranks here are approximately 50/50, the foot soldiers are nearly 90% Shia.  Of the five battalions in the Baghdad Eagle Brigade, four of them are considered “in the lead” units that can, and do, have their own area of operations.  The fifth battalion is expected to be able to stand alone by the beginning of 2008.