Long Term US Presence in Northern Iraq is Moving Forward
Jul 24 at 4:04pm by David Tate
Over the past several weeks, more and more evidence is mounting that a long term US presence in the Kurdish region of Iraq is in the works.
On July 16 the mayor of Halabja, Khadr Karim Mohammad, told the Aswat al-Iraqi news agency that the regional government in Sulaimaniyah Province has agreed to sell 1,500 acres of land east of town to the Americans to build an airport. Mohammad believes the airport will actually be an American airbase.
Halabja lies just under seven miles from the border with Iran and was the scene of a massacre of more than 5,000 Kurds during one of many Saddam-era offensives that targeted Kurdish civilians and rebel fighters alike.
The report claims a second source within the provincial government acknowledges that US officials have surveyed the site several times and that the project is being paid for by the Americans. “The project is much larger than just a civilian airport…”, the unidentified source reportedly said.
While the Americans do not deny the Halabja project is underway, US officials deny the airport is a “cover” for a military base.
The report of a possible US airbase in the Kurdish region is just one of several recent suggestions that any long term US presence in Iraq will most likely include, if not be relegated to, the Kurdish region. The cities of Zakho and Arbil have also been mentioned frequently as possible sites for future US bases.
Jabr al-Yawir, spokesman for the Protection Forces of the Kurdistan Region, recently told the Gulf News that, ”A permenent US presence in the Kurdistan region is welcome and is neccesary to protect Iraq from internal and external risks…”, but that the presence must be within an “Iraqi-Kurd-American” agreement because Kurdistan is the only place a US base can be present in Iraq without continuing to fuel the insurgency.
Al-Yawir suggests that US bases in Mosul and Kirkuk are fuelling armed resistance in those areas and permenant bases in either of those regions would continue to do so.
The Gulf News report also claims that US and Iraqi officials are currently working out an agreement that will solidify a defensive agreement for years to come. Those talks are reportedly ongoing with the latest round happening in the Kurdish capital, Arbil, July 20 between US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Kurdish Regional President Barazani. Barzani has long sought a permenant US presence in his region, with or without Baghdad’s support.
US Pulls Out of Wanat; Base in Nuristan Not First to be Nearly Overrun
Jul 16 at 11:11am by David Tate
Leaving behind a handful of weapons for the Afghan security forces, paratroopers with Chosen Company, 2/503 have withdrawn from the area of Want, Nuristan Province, as they prepare to leave the country for a planned rotation.
As the Americans pulled out, Afghan forces withdrew to Kunar Province allowing militant fighters to move back into a town that will go down in history as one of the deadliest for US troops in this central Asian country.
Military officials say the move does not mean security will be abandoned in Wanat, noting that Afghan forces will continue to operate in the region as will coalition air missions. An Afghan operation in the area July 15 killed seven militants.
Chosen Nearly Overrun in August
The attack in Wanat (Want) has taken the American public by surprise, mostly because of the casualties involved. However, direct attacks on small coalition outposts do occasionally occur in Afghanistan, but earn little true success. For Chosen Company, 2/503, the attack in Want is eerily similar to an attack one of the unit’s platoons faced in 2007.
On August 22, 25 members of Chosen Company, 2/503 were manning an isolated outpost near Aranus, Waygol district, Nuristan when a large force of Taliban attacked from multiple sides. As the attack began, Afghan security contractors abandoned their posts which allowed about 20 militants to breach the outpost walls. Over the next three hours, the paratroopers fought for their lives using small arms, claymore mines and close air support from A-10s buzzing overhead. In the end, 11 of 25 soldiers were wounded; none had been killed.
What Next For Nuristan?
In July, Nuristan has been the focus of a major assault by confederated militant forces, many of whom have recently crossed the Pakistani/Afghan border near Chitral. No updates are coming out of that region, called Bargi Matal, which lies north of Waygol. There, civilians and police forces have been battling up to 500 militants in that district for the past week.
With US forces pulling out of the Wanat region, and having already closed a base near Aranus, it looks as though the soldiers replacing 2/503 (Third Brigade, First Infantry Division) have their work cut out for them. With winter making ground transportation in the area almost impossible, there’s a question whether the new units rotating into the area will be able to re-establish a reasonable presence in eastern and central Nuristan before the weather turns bad.
Perhaps with the the extension of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, we’ll soon see the arrival of Marines in an offensive role in Nuristan, with Army units stabilizing the area and preventing the militants from establishing a winter home within the province’s valleys?
Regardless, whether this year or next year, I can see no way the US military will just concede half of Nuristan to the militants, particularly a village that is covered withso much American blood. The fighting here has really just begun.
Soldiers Killed in Nuristan Had One Week Left in Afghanistan
Jul 15 at 10:10pm by David Tate
With time almost out on a 15-month tour in Afghanistan, the paratroopers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) suffered another setback this week when nine members of the unit’s Second Battalion, 503rd Parachute Regiment were named as fallen soldiers from the deadly insurgent assault on their base in Want, Waygol district, Nuristan Province.
Family members from at least two of the soldiers say it was their last week in Afghanistan and most likely would have been their last mission before rotating back to their base in Italy.
The paratroopers killed in the July 13 attack were members of a platoon from Chosen Company and are listed below:
- 1st Lt. Jonathan Brostom
- Sgt. Israel Garcia
- Cpl. Pruit Rainey
- Cpl. Jonathan Ayers
- Cpl. Matthew Phillips
- Cpl. Jason Bogar
- PFC Sergio Abad
- Cpl. Jason Hovater
- Cpl. Gunnar Zwillig
Chosen Company has been hit especially hard on this tour with a total of 15 members being killed in action. Five of the six other Chosen soldiers died in a deadly RPG-filled ambush near Aranus, Waygol district, Nuristan Province in November 2007.
2/503 , itself, has suffered more soldiers killed in action than any other battalion to have participated in Operation Enduring Freedom.
- 2/503 AB - 24 KIA
- 1/503 AA - 10 KIA
- 1/91 CAV - 5 KIA
- Special Training Battalion - 3 KIA
In all, 42 members of the 173rd ABCT that make up Task Force Bayonet have been killed in action since they landed in eastern Afghanistan in April 2007. In that same period, US officials say attacks in their sector are up more than 50%.
In comparison to the unit’s Afghanistan deployment in 2004-2005, the unit lost 17 members killed in action with 13 killed due to hostile fire. All 42 soldiers killed during the 2007-2008 tour have died from hostile fire.
Note: While Wanat is in Kunar according to most available maps, the government of Afghanistan says Wanat (Want) is actually in Waygol district, Nuristan Province. That position is supported by NGOs familiar with the area and will be reflected as such from this post forward.
Militant Confederacy Behind Deadly Assault in Nuristan
Jul 14 at 6:06pm by David Tate
The former governor of Nuristan, Tammim Nuristani, says that a confederation of militants including Taliban, Hezb-i-Islami as well as members of Pakistan’s outlawed Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, were behind the attack that nearly overran a US/Afghan military base, killing nine Americans and wounding 15 others. The groups involved have direct ties to Al Qaeda.
Nuristani, fired as governor of Nuristan last week for criticizing a US air attack that may have killed several civilians, said the militants gave civilians in nearby Wanat the opportunity to leave before the assault. Many left, but many stayed and helped the fighters.
“They all came together for this one.” said Nuristani.
There is speculation, supported by Nuristani, that the militants garnered civilian support due to the recent US bombing that allegedly killed as many as 22 civilians walking to a wedding. The location of that incident is not far from Wanat.
US officials say the attack began around 0430 July 13 and went well into the day. Using the cover of the empty town of, the militants poured small arms and grenade fire into the base from as close as 150 yards.
Soon after the battle began, militants were able to overrun a joint US/Afghan observation post where officials believe most of the American casualties occurred. As the battle continued, US officials acknowledge that some militants were able to breach the outer walls of the main base itself before being pushed back with “danger close” air strikes and hand-to-hand combat.
A precursor to the July 13 attack happened April 27 when militants staged a daring operation simultaneously targeting five US outposts in Kunar’s Korengal Valley. No coalition members were killed in that series of attacks that left a dozen militants dead.
One of the outposts attacked was the former base at Wanat, which continued to draw regular small arms attacks through June before the Americans moved their base farther down the mountain toward the town itself. Construction on that base had just begun on July 10 and was incomplete when the attack occurred.
Then again on June 8, militants launched multiple attacks across Kunar, including at Wanat, just across the border in Nuristan.
Jihad Within a Jihad
In 2007, signs were becoming ominous that militant forces were attempting to confederate in the Nuristan/Kunar area, essentially calling for a jihad within a jihad. The report, by Dr. Richard Strand, seemed to gain little attention.
Since that report, from April 2007 through April 2008, attacks against the coalition in this area were up more than 50%.
Also, with reports that as many as 500 militants that recently crossed over from Chitral beseiging Bargi Matal district in Nuristan, the “jihad within a jihad” may have been answered. In both incidents, foreign fighters other than Pakistani, are among the militants.
Taliban Assault Nuristan/Kunar; Nine Americans Dead
Jul 13 at 10:10am by David Tate
Nine Americans are dead after a combined US/Afghan base is attacked along the Nuristani/Kunar border in northeastern Afghanistan. 30 miles northeast of that fighting, Afghan civilians and police are also battling as many as 500 militants.
The US military confirms that a fierce battle in Nuristan Province killed nine Americans and wounded 15. Four Afghan soldiers were also wounded. The battle took place in Waygal district in the town of Wanat (Want).
A US spokesman says the small outpost was attacked from multiple sides using rocket propelled grenades, small arms and mortars in a battle that began around 0430 on July 13 and raged into the day. Helicopter gunships and close air support were used in the engagement.
Another report says that the small US outpost was first attacked by dozens of militants using small arms, rocket propelled grenades and mortar fire. After US forces were able to stall the attack with close air support, the soldiers moved to the center of the town of Want and began fortifying the bazaar.
Taliban militants, fighting from surrounding houses and shops, launched a second attack early July 13th. The Taliban claim to have completely overrun the original US outpost.
The US military tells Reuters that while insurgents were using the villages’ buildings and mosque, reports the Americans lost control of the base are not true. Officials say a forward observation point was taken and the main base was breached, but that defenders were able to keep control of the base.
The attack is near where Afghan authorities say a US airstrike killed as many as 27 people in what Afghan officials describe as a “wedding party”. It is unclear whether the two events are related.
Paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade have been operating in the area for more than a year and have suffered more killed in action than any other coalition unit during the conflict in Afghanistan.
Related Fighting?
Afghan civilians have teamed up with Afghan Security Forces in the remote Bargi Matal district, Nuristan Province to fight off a Taliban attack on the district center. Elsewhere in the region, According to various reports, “Pakistani Taliban” initiated the assault in the late morning of July 12 after crossing over from Chitral in Pakistan. Other sources say fighting has been ongoing since July 10. At least two police posts have been overrun. Reports say a mixed force of as many as 500 militants, including Chechens, are involved.
An Afghan government official says the fighting is ongoing with reports of one civilian, two police officers and two militants being killed. Four other cops are missing. Additional Afghan forces are responding to the area which a local police chief says are needed to keep the district center from falling. Roughly 150 police officers are employed in Bargi Matal, who are being supported by “dozens” of the areas young men.
Bargi Matal
Bargi Matal is a scenic and very remote corner of Afghanistan consisting of more than 20 villages along the Kunar River north of Kamdesh. For years following the US-led invasion, no overt coalition troops had stepped foot in the district. Bargi Matal has a history of Wahhabi influence and, as recently as 2007, has been on the short list of places where Osama bin Laden could be hiding.
US forces finally moved into southern Nuristan Province in the summer of 2006, but do very little patrolling or humanitarian work in Bargi Matal. The district lies north of Kamdesh, the main focus of US troops in Nuristan.
This is the second time in a week where reports of civilians attacking Taliban militants. In northwestern Faryab Province, civilians killed two militants and chased ten more off when they tried to kidnap an aid worker. The dead included Faryab’s Taliban “shadow governor”.
This story is ongoing and will be updated regularly. Updated 7/14/08 1321 EST.
Heavy Fighting in Northern Helmand Kills Dozens
Jul 13 at 9:09am by David Tate
The US military is reporting heavy fighting in the northern Helmand Province district of Sangin that has left at least 40 militants dead.
The fight began when a routine coalition joint patrol was attacked July 12 with small arms and rocket propelled grenades. The original ambush came from multiple sides and fortified positions but has spread as the fighting continues. The coalition response includes close air support. British Harriers and US FA-18 Hornets from the USS Abraham Lincoln have been used in recent days around Sangin.
The coalition is reporting 40 dead militants, more than 30 insurgent boats destroyed as well as the destruction of several “hand bridges” across the Helmand River. One coalition service member is also being reported dead in Helmand, however the district where the incident happened has not been disclosed.
Sangin district is primarily patrolled by British forces, however there is a platoon of US Marines in Sangin mentoring the Afghan Security Forces there.
Taliban Country
Sangin has traded hands a few times in this conflict. Most recently in April 2007 when 82nd Airborne paratroopers and the British Army wrested control of the district, from the Taliban, during a three day operation in April of that year. In the weeks before that assault British troops, operating from a base there, engaged Taliban forces 72 times in a 20 day span. The fight to retake Sangin was part of NATOs largest push of the war known as “Operation Achilles”.
In 2006 when the British moved into Helmand, there were no immediate plans to send troops to Sangin because of the heavy Taliban concentrations. However, the Brits ultimately did send units to certain district centers, including Musa Qala and Sangin, after local tribal leaders asked for the presence to help assert government authority.
From June 2006 until NATO forces arrived in force the following April the undersized British company in Sangin’s District Center found itself in an environment where they literally fought off waves of Taliban attackers for their lives. British troops nicknamed the post at Sangin, “Sangingrad”, with the fighting around it considered some of the most intense British action since the Korean War.
On July 16, 2006, NATO launched “Operation Mountain Thrust” into Sangin with the goal of breaking the siege of the British there. More than 700 American, Canadian, Afghan and Estonian troops took part in the operation, which did ease the pressure on the British, but did not break the siege.
This is a developing story and I will continue to update as regular as I can. Updated 1232.
US Special Forces Get Break That Leads to MIAs
Jul 12 at 2:02pm by David Tate
US Special Forces captured an Iraqi who led them to the bodies of two 10th Mountain Division soldiers missing in Iraq for more than a year.
Sgt. Alex Jimenez, of Massachusetts, and Pvt Brian Fouty, of Michigan, have been missing since their small unit was attacked May 12, 2007 south of Baghdad. The attack also left four US soldiers and an Iraqi soldier/interpreter dead.
According to the Associated Press, Brian Fouty’s stepfather, Gordon Dibler, said that military officials who personally visited the Fouty family July 8 told him the remains of both missing soldiers were found in the village of Jurf as Sakhr, an area where members of Saddam’s top-tier security apparatus used to live.
Ambush
In the early morning hours of May 12th, 2007, seven soldiers and an Iraqi soldier/interpreter were manning an “overwatch” position on Route Malibu. Their mission: To monitor an area in the town of Qarghuli, 12 miles west of Mahmudiyah notorious for roadside bombs. The unit was part of a larger operation deployed within proximity of the road.
The Americans, using two humvees encircled by concertina wire as their position, were carrying out the often boring mission when, just before 5am, the trees and tall grass around them erupted in small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. It’s not known how long the battle lasted, but by the end, the insurgents were within hand grenade distance.
The attack happened just 800 yards from a US base and within view of an Iraqi Army position, which ignored the fighting.
A nearby American unit that had heard the explosions couldn’t reach the soldiers using their communications equipment, which prompted them to call in an aerial drone to investigate the position. In the early dawn light the drone found the position, which was now marked by billowing black smoke from the two humvees which were heavily damaged and on fire.
45 minutes later, two units made it to the scene, both slowed by IEDs encountered on the way. When they got there, they found the bodies of four soldiers, including the Iraqi soldier, in the burning humvees. The only evidence of the other four men came in the form of blood trails and drag marks. Soldiers following one blood trail found another soldier dead in a nearby building. He had been shot.
The capture of several members of the supposed kidnap team, including two major players in December 2007, led US officials to believe that 13 criminals, hired by Al Qaeda affiliated, Islamic State of Iraq, planned and executed the attack. Evidence indicates the terrorists had practiced the assault in the days leading up to May 12th.
Following the ambush, the team split into two groups and drove off; the three Americans were with the gang’s ringleader and were alive.
Al Qaeda in Iraq quickly took credit for the attack, claiming the umbrella group, Al Qaeda in Mesopatamia, carried the assault out. The group also warned the thousands of US and Iraqi troops, who had flooded the area in an attempt to find the soldiers, to stop looking or the prisoners would be executed.
On May 23rd, the body of Joeseph Anzack Jr., of California, was pulled from the Euphrates River by civilians 30 miles south of the area of the ambush. Anzack had been shot in the head and torso plus showed signs of excessive torture. There are plausible theories that suggest Anzack was shot and dumped in the river as US forces closed in on his captors.
While the search for the two remaining men did slow down in the ensuing weeks, the US military never stopped looking for them; digging up dozens of suspected gravesites over the past year.
In June 2007, Al Qaeda released a video claiming to have killed the men, but offered no pictures of the bodies. US troops also found the ID cards of the missing soldiers in a safehouse near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad and more than ninety miles from where the ambush took place. At that time, US military sources believed they were on the soldiers’ trail with “credible” leads taking them northeast to Iraq’s Salahuddin Province. In October, troops even recovered some of the weapons that belonged to the men, but still no sign of Jimenez or Fouty themselves.
That would all change on July 1 when US Special Forces captured a man who led them to the graves a few days later. The wondering, the questions, suffering the unknown, is now over.
Same Method of Operation?
A year earlier on June 16, 2006, not far from where the 2007 ambush/kidnapping occurred, a dozen soldiers manning a checkpoint on a bridge, also along Route Malibu, were attacked in a coordinated ambush that would later be realized as a planned kidnapping of American soldiers. The operation was a rare one for insurgents. The only other similar incident during the war happened farther south in Karbala in January 2007.
According to an Iraqi eyewitness, three humvees were manning a checkpoint on a bridge west of Yusifiyah when the checkpoint came under attack from several directions. Two of the humvees speed off and before the third could follow, it was engaged at close range by seven masked men supported by a truck bearing a heavy machine gun.
One soldier, Specialist David Babineau of Massachusetts, was killed during the initial assault. Two others, PFC Kristian Menchaca of Texas and PFC. Thomas Tucker of Oregon, were captured alive.
A month later, insurgents released a gruesome video of the two mutilated, decapitated soldiers as fighters continued to desecrate their bodies. A US military official says the men were paraded up and down Route Malibu before being killed.
The bodies were found June 19 in a ditch booby trapped with IEDs. They were found at the power plant in Jurf as Sakhr.
Abu Usama al-Tunisi, the alleged mastermind of the attack, was killed in an american airstrike in September 2006. Tunisi was also a major facilitator for foreign fighters coming into Iraq and was al-Qaeda’s emir of Yusufiyah.
Steven Dale Green’s Legacy?
There is a debate as to the motivation behind both of these attacks. Some say it’s as simple as well executed insurgent operations. However others, including al-Qaeda in Iraq, say both ambushes were in retaliation for the rape and murder of a young Iraqi girl and her family in 2006, three months before the first ambush, also west of al Mahmudiyah.
In March of that year, 15-year old Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi was gang raped by a group of paratroopers after her mother, father and five year old sister were murdered. Abeer herself was then shot and set on fire. The main perpetrator was Pvt. Steven Dale Green.
Within three months insurgents sprung the first ambush/kidnapping detailed above, targeting members of the same unit accused in the rape and murder incident. Al Qaeda claims the executions of the soldiers were carried out by Abu Hamza al-Mujaeer, possibly a member of Abeer Hamza’s family.
Whether the deaths of these 10 soldiers from Bravo, 1/502, 101st airborne and 4/31, 10th Mountain are tied to the rape and murders of the Hamza family may never be agreed on. However, the fact that both ambushes carried similar hallmarks, both ambushes happened within 25 miles of one another and the fact that both incidents ended in Jurf as Sakhr certainly suggests, at the least, the two incidents are related in some way.
Australian Special Operator Killed in Oruzgan
Jul 9 at 11:11pm by David Tate
An IED strike on an Austrailian Special Operations patrol killed one digger, wounding two others July 8th. An Afghan soldier was also killed. 25-year old Sean McCarthy, of Perth, was a signaller assigned to Special Operations Task Group, which includes members of Australia’s 4th Battalion Commandos and the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR). McCarthy was SASR.
In early May, the Australians launched an offensive to take long term control of the Baluchi Pass in southern Oruzgan Province. In doing so, the Australians hoped to cut the major, known supply route used by the Taliban shuttling weapons, supplies and fighters north from Helmand Province.
The Australian offensive coincided with the landing of US Marines in southern Helmand around the same time. This is the second large scale attempt to pacify the area within the past year.
Of the approximately 1,200 Australian Army personnel in Afghanistan, 200 are stationed in Kandahar and 1,000 in Oruzgan Province. 600 soldiers are assigned to the Dutch-led Provincial Reconstruction Team.
US Carrier Moving to Support Troops in Afghanistan
Jul 8 at 12:12pm by David Tate
In an effort to bolster its firepower in Afghanistan, the US military said July 7th, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is now in position to do just that.
The news, first reported by NBC and now CNN, is a continuing sign of US military forces ratcheting up involvement in Afghanistan.
The Abraham Lincoln, which had been supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom, will be based in the Gulf of Oman where its F-18A fighter/bombers will have access to southern Afghanistan, and beyond, via overflights of Pakistan.
The move follows remarks last week by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates showing great concern over the rise in violence seven years into the Afghan war.
In April, a “one-time” surge of 2,200 US Marines landed in southern Afghanistan after a year of near-hollow wrangling to get the international community to send more troops to the fledgling government’s aid. That unit, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was extended 30 more days July 3rd.
In June, President Bush announced his intentions to bolster US ground forces in Afghanistan by two Regimental Combat Teams before July 2009. That move would increase US ground forces in that central asian country to roughly 40,000, up from the present level of 31,000. However, in a speech last week, the president acknowledged the tough time in Afghanistan, suggesting more troops could be in country by the end of the year.
Afghans, Spanish Hit Taliban in Baghdis
Jul 3 at 5:05pm by David Tate
25 Taliban fighters, including a local commander, were killed in Muqur district, Baghdis Province, by Afghan Security Forces (ASF) backed by Spanish International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops.
Provincial Police Chief Mohammad Ayub Nearzyar told the Pak Tribune the ten hour fight went into the early morning of July 3rd after a joint patrol was attacked. One Afghan was wounded.
While Baghdis Province is a relatively quiet province that lies in the northwest of the country, there is an active Taliban presence there. The most recent significant combat took place June 1st when 48 militants were killed in air strikes after attacking a joint Spanish/Afghan patrol.
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