EFP attacks down drastically in Iraq

ARLINGTON, Va. - Explosively formed penetrator attacks in Iraq are "way
down over the past couple of months," said the head of the Joint IED
Defeat Organization.

The number of EFPs that U.S. troops encountered in July was "in the
teens," Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz told reporters Wednesday.

"I think it's probably connected with Sadr's militia and his direction
to calm down," Metz said.

Widely known as "EFPs," the penetrators are a particularly deadly type
of roadside bomb that fire a slug of high density metal at a high
velocity, giving the penetrator much more power than roadside bombs of
similar size made from artillery shells.

Since he became head of JIEDDO in December, EFPs have made up between 5
percent and 10 percent of all roadside bombs per month, but they have
accounted for 40 percent of casualties, Metz said.

As with previous JIEDDO roundtables, no specific information was
provided on the number of roadside bomb attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan
due to security concerns.

Overall, the number of roadside bombs that U.S. troops encounter is down
more than 50 percent from its peak of between 2,800 and 3,000 per month,
Metz said.

As U.S. troops get better at jamming radio-controlled bombs, the enemy
in Iraq has shifted to low-tech means to set them off, such as pressure
plates and tripwires.

While such methods mean those who implant roadside bombs can be spotted
more easily, it also makes the job of stopping roadside bombs harder.

"It's still a very hard physics problem to be moving down the road at 30
miles an hour and have a device that can look into the ground and detect
at a very low false-positive rate, you know, a pressure plate that's
under there," he said.

While U.S. troops are dealing with fewer roadside bombs in Iraq, the
trend is going in the other direction in Afghanistan, Metz said.

After dropping off during the winter, the number of roadside bomb
attacks in Afghanistan has risen dramatically since the beginning of the
year, according to Wednesday's presentation.

During the peak of roadside bomb attacks this spring, coalition troops
encountered about 200 roadside bombs, resulting in about 40 casualties,
Metz said.

The increase is due in part to the presence of more coalition troops in
Afghanistan, he said.

Meanwhile, JIEDDO is counting about 300 "IED events" outside Iraq and
Afghanistan per month, underscoring the need to defeat IED networks as a
strategic threat, he said.

"I do not want every thug in the world to pick up on the fact that the
IED is his weapon of choice, because it'll come to the homeland, and I
don't want it in the homeland," Metz said.

By Jeff Schogol
Stars and Stripes
August 8, 2008

MiTT units present Marines with unique opportunities

ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq - The Marines of the three military transition
teams assigned to 2nd Quick Reaction Force, 1st Iraqi Division live on
Iraqi military camps often far from U.S. bases.

They eat, play and sleep among the Iraqi soldiers they are here to
advise. There are no dining facilities, military exchanges or other
amenities available at most of the camps. Yet some say this has been the
best experience of their careers.

A small unit like this creates strong bonds among the enlisted troops
and officers, said Lance Cpl. Nathaniel Gillingham, 22, a radio operator
from Lakeland, Fla.

It's unusual for lance corporals to have daily interaction with majors
and lieutenant colonels, but it happens here, said Lance Cpl. Daniel
Nicholson, 20, an infantryman from Robindale Heights, Pa.

Gillingham and Nicholson, part of the 2nd Quick Reaction Force MiTT, are
assigned to an Iraq camp near Camp Fallujah in Anbar province. The team
is so small that everyone pitches in to do jobs usually done by junior
Marines, such as man turret guns on convoys, Gillingham said.

"We work so closely together that we are all on the same page and can
predict each others' actions," said Lance Cpl. Erik Tirado, 27, a
machine gunner from Jacksonville, Fla., with the team advising reaction
force's 3rd Battalion.

"It is so much better than being in an infantry battalion," he said.

Junior Marines here do more too, the three agreed.

"It's much better than a regular battalion as far as being a radio
operator in the back-in-the shop scenario," Gillingham said. "Back in
the shop, all you do is prepare the gear for others to go out on the
convoys. Here I go out a lot and do and see things that only a grunt
used to get to do."

Nicholson is his team's intelligence chief, which is not the "run-of-the
mill job" for an infantry lance corporal, he said.

The junior Marines have also taken on more responsibility such as being
vehicle and convoy commanders even when higher-ranked personnel are on
the convoys, Nicholson said.

Interaction with Iraqi soldiers has added to the experience.

The Iraqi soldiers are very interested in the Marines' lives, said Pfc.
Zach Young, 21, an infantryman from Pittsburgh working with the 3rd
Battalion's advisory team. "They want to know where you are from, what
your father does, are you married," Young said.

He said he was surprised at "how much they blamed the Iraqi government
for all the problems in the country."

Talking to the Iraqi soldiers, "it gives you a sense of humbleness of
what you have back home. They are oblivious to what they have and could
have," Gillingham said.

By Cindy Fisher
Stars and Stripes
August 3, 2008

DEI gets help in production to meet burgeoning demands

Diyala Electrical Industries received two machines to help the Iraqi
owned company get closer to meeting its production demand.

The machines are a benefit of a partnership between Diyala Electrical
Industries and the United States Government and are in need at the
company for production of industrial sized electrical transformers for
power lines.

DEI is the only company that produces transformers in Iraq. These are
used to help transport electricity through power lines throughout Iraq.

The machines the company received are wire cutting and gas cutting
machines that will increase the amount of transformers manufactured. The
company needs these machines to increase their capabilities to meet
demand.

"Diyala Electrical Industries is critical to Diyala and to the country
as a whole," said David Matthews, senior economic advisor with the
Provincial Reconstruction Team for the Diyala Province. "I think the
improvement over the past year has been dramatic."

Meeting the demand is the goal of the company. The company employs over
2, 5000 Iraqis and as the demand goes up, so will the employment. This
will help the economy and the people that work at the company.

"My concern is about the government of Iraq to be able to produce these
highly technical instruments to be used for the country of Iraq and the
people of Iraq," said Matthews.
Technical ability is an important to the production of DEI and the pole
of Iraq. The company has several engineers and technical experts and
general laborers who work together t assemble different pieces of the
transformers.

The employees are very excited about the new machines to assist the
company. The new machines will be used to help increase production.

"This is going to improve the production of the company," said
Abdul-Salam Muhammad Jafar, distribution manager, Diyala Electric
Industries. "The new machines can replace some out dated machines and
will allow for an increase in production."

This will make the production faster with less down time for the
machines, said Jafar.

Story by SGT Mark Albright
14th Public Affairs Detachment

The month of August is almost half way done

Here are some pictures of the Month of July. I have not get a chance to
write something good recently due to being extremely busy and somewhat
stress out of long hour of work from myself. My Soldiers usually tell
me that I need to go home, but then I do not feel good going home now
due to too much emotional attach to Iraq, its people and of course my
platoon as well.

You all take care and keep up the hard work as time flies by very
quickly and we will be united to our families real soon.

Life is a good as it is

Quite Good Article to Read about 58th CEC

IED hunters take on insurgency in northern Iraq

CAMP SPEICHER, IRAQ: Investment in "alien-looking" mine-detection
equipment by the U.S. military, combined with increased funding for
Iraqi police and army units, has cut the number of improvised explosive
attacks in the past year in the northern part of the country from 6,000
a month a year ago to less than 500 this month.

Fully 75 percent of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) emplaced in
parts of Iraq are now being discovered before they explode, the US Army
said. With a growing reconciliation program taking hundreds of Iraqis
out of insurgent ranks every month, the millions of dollars spent to
design and purchase mine-detection equipment and train soldiers is close
to eliminating the attacks that have killed and injured thousands across
the country since 2003.

"The technology that has been provided to Combat Engineers in the past
five years has saved lives on a grand scale," said Colonel Matthew
Russell, commander of the 18th Engineer Brigade at Camp Speicher, near
the city of Tikrit, about 150 miles north of Baghdad. "Either because of
scarce resources or perhaps they're running low on explosives, they've
had to start emplacing hoax IEDs just to take up our time."

It's money that couldn't be spent fast enough. Improvised explosives
became the weapon of choice for insurgents and terrorists who attacked
poorly armored Humvees and civilian cars at will from 2004 to 2006. Up
to 80 percent of US casualties during the past two years of the conflict
had been caused by IED attacks. In 2006, some road patrol units in Anbar
province were discovering or setting off up to 10 IEDs each night patrol
while covering less than a mile of roadway.

"During the first six months of the war, there weren't any IEDs," said
Captain Donovan Peterson, commanding officer of the 58th Combat Engineer
Company at Camp Speicher. "The whole IED fight is something that the
Army had to come up with on its own."

The 3rd Platoon, 58th Combat Engineer Company has patrolled the main
highways between Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, and Baiji,
where Iraq's largest oil refinery operates, so many times in the past
eight months that the soldiers now notice subtle changes in the trash
along the side of the road.

"We know the road so well, we just know when something is different,"
said Specialist Matthew Quenga. "It's like 'Where the hell did that bag
come from?' Even if it's something Iraqis just threw out there."

Patrolling with the engineers highlights the care US soldiers take with
potential threats. On this day, suspicion fell on an abandoned tire a
few feet off the northbound side of the main Baiji to Tikrit road, only
about 200 meters from an Iraqi Police checkpoint. The tire itself was
not significant -- the amount of trash on Iraq's roads would exhaust
every 'Adopt a Road' program in the US. But after months of patrolling
experience, one of the soldiers was able to see wires running out from
the edge of the tire as they drove past in the southbound lane.

Several soldiers, talking over the radio among the five-vehicle mission,
believed the tire was a hoax. Bomb installers have increasingly placed
propane tanks, tires, and water jugs on the side of the road, in the
hope of perhaps lulling Iraqi Police and US Army patrols to complacency
before resuming attacks with real bombs.

To combat the explosive tire, engineer battalions now use several pieces
of newly developed equipment that have little use outside of bomb
discovery. The first looks like a mating of an industrial road-grader
and a pawn-shop robotic arm.

Called a 'Husky', the South African-made mine detector allows its single
operator to control a 20-foot-long robotic arm with a camera and
two-pronged claw at the end to find out what is inside an abandoned
tire, all at a safe distance. The occupant of the Husky sits 12 feet
above the ground in a blast-proof cab.

In this case, the tire was holding an anti-tank mine, probably Italian
or Chinese-made, containing enough explosives to seriously damage a
vehicle if it ran directly over it.

To destroy the tire bomb, the Army has come to depend on an even more
outlandish, but highly effective piece of equipment - the Talon - a
robotic remote-controlled tread vehicle with an on-board video camera to
verify and then destroy the IED without putting humans in harm's way.
The Talon can then use a small robotic arm to carry counter-charges, in
this case, two sticks of C-4 explosive with a time-fuse.

About an hour after the IED was discovered, the platoon destroyed it
with explosives, allowing traffic on the four-lane road to return to
normal, and adding one more ex-IED to the more than 150 the company has
destroyed in the past eight months.

Bill Murray from www.longwarjournal.com

A few more pictures

Just a few Pictures

Basic soldiering lessons just the start for military transition teams in Iraq

ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq — Developing the Iraqi army to the point that it operates independently of coalition forces is essential — not only to prop up the Iraqi government, but also to allow U.S. troops to leave the country, military officials have long said.

To do that, small military transition teams have been living, eating and sleeping with units of the Iraqi army for the last few years. They began by teaching Iraqis the basics of being soldiers.

That’s what some enlisted Marines assigned to a MiTT advising the 2nd Quick Reaction Force, 1st Iraqi Division thought they would be doing.

"I was told I was going to train the Iraqi army specifically on machine guns," said Lance Cpl. Erik Tirado, 27, a machine gunner from Jacksonville, Fla., who is part of a team advising the reaction force’s 3rd Battalion at Manion Combat Outpost near Dradigila.

But that has not been the case. The Iraqis have shown enough progress that the Marines have been going out with them on patrols and exercises. And in some cases, the Iraqis are taking over the operations.

"We are so far beyond training," said Lt. Col. Sean Riordan, 37, from Emerald Isle, N.C., the senior adviser for the team assigned to the quick reaction force staff at the Iraqi base near Camp Fallujah. A team is also assigned to the brigade’s 2nd Battalion at Halwas Combat Outpost.

The teams are now focusing on developing "the coalition-independent capabilities of the Iraqi army," he said.

Riordan said the Marines have encountered some difficulties working with the Iraqi army. One is the language barrier.

Pfc. Zach Young, 21, an infantry Marine from Pittsburgh assigned to the 3rd Battalion’s MiTT team, said he attended a four-week course in Arabic before the deployment. "The only problem was it was a Saudi dialect. The Iraq dialect is a little different," Young said.

Cultural differences have also caused some frustration for the Marines. Transition teams have to understand the Iraqi military customs and how it affects what they do, Riordan explained.

"Take, for example, leave," he said. Once a month the Iraqi soldiers take leave to take their pay to their families and make sure they are still safe, he said.

"The Iraqi culture, it is like the wind, it is like the sand. It’s no use getting mad about it; you just have to learn how to deal with it," Riordan said.

Team advisers also find themselves working as advocates for the Iraqi army. "Sometimes coalition intentions don’t line up with Iraqi intentions," Riordan said. So the advisers do a balancing act to bring them closer together.

Despite the difficulties, there have been marked improvements here, he said.

In September 2007, the Iraqi brigade accepted responsibility for its own operating area in the northernmost portion of Anbar province. The mostly desert area with a few homes and small villages was once a haven for insurgents, Riordan said. "They lived in this area and knew we couldn’t get there," he said of the insurgents.

Iraqi soldiers began constantly patrolling the area, fighting insurgents, finding weapons caches and neutralizing bombs, he said.

Just two weeks ago, one Iraqi patrol found 400 gallons of explosives in a house, he said. The brigade also worked with Iraqi police and nearby coalition forces to increase security in the region, Riordan said.

The brigade has regained the trust of the local people, said Brig. Gen. Ali, the brigade’s commander. He and other Iraqis are often identified only by part of their names because Iraqi soldiers and their families are still being targeted by insurgents. Some officers have to move their families several times a year to keep them safe.

The change in attitude about the Iraqi army is due to how the brigade operates, Ali said.

"When we detain suspects, we treat them well. We help people: food, medical operations, help at schools.… We kill insurgents and we know the difference between insurgents and civilians," he said.

The Iraqi soldiers also have learned to identify with the army, so they bring neutrality to the area, said Capt. Anthony Guess-Johnson, 33, from Pasadena, Calif. People know the brigade is not operating with any faction or party agendas, said Johnson, senior adviser for the team assigned to 3rd Battalion.

Iraqi officers meet with the heads of tribes to know the people of the area, and locals have begun asking for more Iraqi soldiers to come here, Johnson said. As they have gained control of the area, people have returned and businesses have reopened, Iraqi soldiers say.

"I feel safe now," said an auto parts store owner in Dradigila, who did not want to be identified. Before, he couldn’t keep his business open and had difficulty feeding his family due to the insurgent activity in the area, he said.

The Iraqi army is building on its success by taking over the planning of its patrols and operations and the managing of the area, Riordan said. They are getting to the point where they can do independent operations, he said.

Last week, the brigade put into motion the first operation in a three-phase plan against insurgent activity that they developed and will execute mostly on their own, he said. Coalition forces are just helping the brigade with technological and air capabilities, he said.

As a result of the Iraqi success, team advisers have backed off and act only as coaches, Riordan said. "We try to the best of our ability not to do their jobs," he said.

By Cindy Fisher
Stars and Stripes
August 3, 2008

Focus in Diyala shifts to community building

U.S. and Iraqi army soldiers are busy speaking with villagers in the
southern part of Diyala's Balad Ruz district now that they are finished
with the searching and clearing phase of the Iraqi government's latest
operation against an insurgent stronghold, said Maj. Cameron Cantlon,
executive officer for 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

The work marks a shift in Operation Saber Pursuit from a combat focus to
community building. Multi-National Division - North launched the
operation to establish a foothold in an area that's been a persistent
haven for enemy fighters and financiers.

Soldiers began Saber Pursuit by rounding up all the men in the village
and questioning them to find out if any were insurgents. They initially
found that insurgents had already fled the villages and cleared out many
of their weapons cache sites. But they encountered more people as they
worked their way through the area, Cantlon said. While many villages
were entirely devoid of military-aged males, one recent 400-person
village had 75 when coalition forces arrived.

These people have also helped the soldiers uncover the insurgents'
hidden weapons. Iraqi soldiers with 18th Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army
Division and American soldiers with 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry
Regiment unearthed 12 caches near Hamud, Iraq. The caches contained 60
mm mortar rounds with a mortar tube, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher
with various grenades and several AK-47 assault rifles.

"It shows a commitment of the people themselves," Cantlon said about the
resident's tips.

Soldiers are now assessing the communities to find out what they need
and to propose solutions to their problems. Iraqi soldiers are also
meeting with local officials and residents.

Insurgents had previously returned to the area after coalition forces
swept through. But commanders say they won't be able to do that this
time because Iraqi soldiers will be staying behind and more Iraqi police
will be hired to help them.

Work has already begun on new checkpoints and platoon-sized patrol
bases, Cantlon said. Trucks have delivered barriers for the construction
of the new sites.

With work in the Balad Ruz district shifting to a new phase, leaders are
already looking ahead to future operations in the province.

"There are operations planned to continue to separate the insurgents
from the people," Cantlon said.

Nearly 50,000 Iraqi police and soldiers are also involved in operations
against al-Qaida in Iraq throughout Diyala province, a senior provincial
official said Wednesday.

House-to-house search operations are focused on the provincial capital
of Baqouba, but will be extended to rugged areas near the Iranian
border, Ibrahim Bajilan, the head of the regional council, told The
Associated Press.

The crackdown will take about two weeks "and then law will be imposed in
all Diyala," Bajilan said, according to the AP, providing details about
an operation that began Tuesday.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari, told
AP that 35 "wanted insurgents" have been apprehended so far and a number
of weapons seized in Diyala.

U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. David Perkins said the main
challenges in Diyala were the hot summer temperatures and the abundance
of hiding places and enclaves in palm groves and other agricultural
areas.

"It just takes a lot of physical effort to go through this difficult
terrain in very hot and demanding conditions," Perkins told a joint news
conference with al-Askari.