By DJ Elliott, CJ Radin and Bill Roggio
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The Baghdad Order Of Battle. Click map to view. |
A crucial component of the new Iraq security plan is securing the capital city of Baghdad. The plan is to split Baghdad into two subcommands (Divisions) east and west of the Tigris River. An Iraqi Army general has assumed command of the overall operation, with U.S. units in support. The U.S. has devoted 9 combat Battalions plus Training Teams and Quick Reaction Forces, about 17,500 troops, to augment the 10 Iraqi Army combat Brigades, 8 Iraqi National Police Brigades and local police forces. The U.S. battalions will pair up with the Iraqi Army Brigades and police units, and establish approximately 30 Joint Security Stations (JSS) within the neighborhoods. From the JSS, US, Iraqi Army and police forces will maintain a permanent presence in the neighborhoods, conduct patrols and direct reconstruction projects.
The Baghdad Order Of Battle is an attempt to determine which forces are deployed in each neighborhood. We believe we have determined where most of the the Iraqi Army Brigades will be deployed. Some of the U.S. Brigades/Battalions and all Iraqi National Police units have also been located with a lesser degree of certainty.
The information presented in the Baghdad Order Of Battle is based entirely on open source information, which includes Multinational Forces Iraq press releases and media reports. We believe this an accurate representation of the Baghdad Order Of Battle, and will update the map with any corrections or changes on a weekly basis.
See The Surge and the Baghdad Security Operation for a closer look at the security plan.
26 Comments
The world beyond Anna Nicole Smith
In case you need a break from 24/7 coverage of Anna’s death, you might be interested in this update on the battle for Baghdad: The Baghdad Order Of Battle. Technorati tags: Anna Nicole Smith, Baghdad, Iraq, surge
A couple things come to mind. Now that we have even more integration with Iraqi units has the communication between Iraqi and US units improved? I know there is still a big shortage of Arabic speakers that can serve as interpreters within the US armed forces. There was also a shortage of interpreters coming from the Iraqi side. Is that situation gradually getting better or are things still pretty thin.
I’m glad they are teaming up IA and INP units to a much greater degree. I think it is the way to go from here out. The INP units need the backbone that the IA can provide. It’s still going to be difficult to stop the bombings though. I still don’t think the combined US and Iraqi intelligence apparatus can uncover the bombing cells fast enough. They can take back the streets though and that’s a big step.
I’m not too familiar with all the iraqi unit details; for example which untis are the Kurdish units. The 1-2 IA BDE listed on the map scheduled to go into Sadr City, is this a Sunnis, Shia, or Kurdish unit? Just curious.
More specifically, which was the Kurdish unit which essentially retook Fallujah, and where are they being deployed?
I’m asking because I’m wondering if the toughest Kurdish units are being left out of the picture, is this a deliberate act by Maliki to provide the appearance of a crackdown without putting the sharpest teeth into the effort? I really don’t trust Shiite units going into Sadr city and attacking with any type of credible, substantive force.
Is this a well-founded concern, or overly cynical?
DJ
82nd just dropped a bunch of guys in FOB Loyalty in Rusafa. 2ID elements there as well. Some happening now/soon.
Thanks,guys. A masterful piece of work.
Ted.
Bill, the A.P. just released a story called “Al-Sadr looks to lie low, outlast U.S.” which you can read here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070210/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_al_sadr_s_strategy
Do you have any comments on this and do you think General Petraeus has this possible plan by Sadr factored in?
Dave,
I summarized my thoughts on Sadr going to ground here:
http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/02/the_surge_and_the_ba.php
If Sadr choses not to fight (which they’ve done so far) I suspect the US will continue to chip away at his base. See the arrest of the assistant health minister, for instance.
Units of the Iraqi army can be sent. But will
they be full strength? Will they function as
part of a national army?
I have my doubts.
Bush is weak, time is running out. Who wants to
be the ARVN in 1974 in 2007 Iraq?
I’ve got a bad feeling that this was the phony
war. The real one is down the road. Might we
better off letting our enemies fight it out in
Iraq while we do what Gates suggests and build
up our forces for the next battle?
The A.P. always support terrorists , it send a little news about we kill terrorists .
dapperdan:
– All IA Bdes with #-6 are Baghdad based 6th IAD (5x Bdes).
The three IA Bdes the US talks about are:
– 1-2 Bde is deploying from Irbil to Sadr City (Kurdish).
– 3-4 is from Sulamaniyah and is in west Baghdad (and may include other Kurdish Bns to fill out).
– 4-10 from the south, appears to be a composit of 10th IAD deploying from Nasiriyah/Ameriah (may include an 8th IAD Bn).
GoI talks about five augmenting IA Bdes. The other two already in Baghdad are:
– 4-1 from eastern Anbar is in Adhamiyah (mixed).
– 1-9 Mech from Taji is the mobile reserve for East Baghdad (mixed) and elements of 2-9/3-9 have also shown up (BMP1s). The 1-9 is the T55/MTLBs equipped troops you see in the news. If you see T72s then you will know that 2-9 Tank Bde is also arriving…
——
sangell:
– As to the shortages of personnel in IA: The 7IAD in western Anbar is still at 50-60% while the replacement program (to bring IA to 110%)is 2/3rds done, because:
“Anbar is at the end of the spigot for replacements. Baghdad has priority.”
-Cmdr RCT7
– 20,000 of the 30,000 replacements to fill out IA combat units have graduated and Baghdad deployers have the priority…
– The 60% arrival of 4-1 Bde was expected. The Bde was at 80% and had 25% of personnel on authorized leave. They arrived in Baghdad a month prior to commencing operations to get replacements, refit and get familiar with new turf. Most Anbar based IA units are short. That is not so true in the rest of Iraq…
BobK:
That fits with what I suspect they are doing.
They are pushing Sadr’s gang to run for Iran.
First Adhamiyah, then Rusafa and New Baghdad.
When 1-2 fully arrives they will push hard on Sadr city.
Leaving only the east (towards Iran) as an escape route…
Note:
– 4-1 Bde from Anbar is one of the most experienced Brigades in the IA. Entire 1st IAD (Iraqi Intervention Force) has been the Fire Bdes of the IA…
– 1-9 Mech Bde has been active in Anbar as well. When you see T55/MTLBs in Iraq, you are looking at 1-9. 9th Mech Div has been providing armor detachments to north and west Iraq (and Baghdad) for a long time now. Since Jun the 2-9 has been providing detachments to Ramadi since Jun. Almost all of the tracked armor in the IA is in 9th Division…
Dave
– If they run it is a win. This is not a short term operation, this is a permanent increase. They will never find a more permissive environment than now (before the forces are fully on-line).
– The IA is forming five new Brigades to be fully operational by end-year. All of the new IA formations (3 Div/5 Bde/20 Bn and 1 SOF Bn) are to be formed by April.
– The US deployment is a gap filler while the IA expands to needed strength…
You might also look at the FY2007 supplemental blue book. That is just the start of the IA expansion…
http://www.dod.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2008/fy2007_supplemental/FY2007_Emergency_Supplemental_Request_for_the_GWOT.pdf
Lot of data on Iraq/Afghan
Incl (iraq):
Pg2 (pdf5) Graphics
Pg6 (pdf9) – IA Force enhancements to incl 33k pers for Log/sust/maint and suport elements (Engr, EOD, MI, MP) weapons including Aslt Rifles, MG, NVG, Howitzers, mortars, Airlift, Air Assualt, UAVs, offshore patrol.
Pg 38 (pdf41)
Pg 40 (pdf43)
Pg 45 (pdf48) Requirement for I SOF to get a SOF Utility Helo Squadron;
T-6 like trainer with COIN capability for Air Force
I’d like to hear an opinion. In the past enemy fled the area when pressed, like Falluja, Mosul, Tal-Afar, and reappeared in other area.
What is going to happen now, will enemy forces stand their ground or flee again ? Is Baghdad important to them ? If yes, why ?
DG
I believe that what the media aren’t fully appreciating is the increasing capability of the IA. Yes, Drazen, to some extent it is like tapping on a puddle of mercury; you end up with very little under your finger and a scattering of little puddles in all directions. In this case, I believe the scattering is going to have fewer places to go than in the past. Or to be more accurate, the places they will go will be less safe for them than they were in the past.
Judging from the results of the past week or so, it looks like AQII is taking quite a beating, Mookie is seeing his organization being taken apart under him, and the IA making great strides in putting an Iraqi face on restoring order.
The sad part is that the current congressional leadership isn’t going to like the notion of success one bit. If this shows signs of working, watch out for increased agitation from congress to pull the rug out from under it.
crosspatch
Watch what is passed vs what was requested in FY07 Sup and FY08 that is for ISF. Triming that would have major impact on success or failure in Iraq/Afghanistan.
As to when do we win, A Scotsman said it the best:
“It would be a pity if we snached defeat from the jaws of victory as 2007 looks to be set up to do.”
Reality is that a stalemate is a win for US. For the various hostile factions in Iraq to win, they have to:
A. Work together.
B. Defeat the IA militarily
C. Remove the elected Govt of Iraq and
D. Establish their own control.
All of the AIF factions combined do not have the ability to do any of those, unless we let them. The reality is the press has built them up to be bigger than they are.
Why do you think they are focused on killing civilians vice destroying the IA? The gangs do not have what it takes for fighting military.
I glad to see there finally getting some information out about Irons involvement. As I see in the news captions on the right. I don’t think the public has any notion of the degree to which the violence and terrorism is still state sponsored. The media tends to associate these kind of press releases with escalation by the Bush administration. We’ll see how much resistance the press gives to this in the face of increasingly obvious involvement by Iran. At the very least it give political cover for going after Quids forces that are in Iraq. In the short term I don’t expect this to lead to any direct confrontation with Iran. The two parties both have very strong reasons to avoid a direct war.
That’s Iran’s involvement, not Irons. Darned automatic spell checker. I forgot to put the apostrophe in Iran’s and the spell checker mangled it. Time to turn off the feature. I’m getting tired of it.
The Baghdad Order Of Battle
Courtesy of The Fourth Rail:
By DJ Elliott, CJ Radin and Bill Roggio
A crucial component of the new Iraq security plan is securing the capital city of Baghdad. The plan is to split Baghdad into two subcommands (Divisions) east and west of the Tigris…
“Why do you think they are focused on killing civilians vice destroying the IA?”
One reason for that is that the media tends to use the number of civilian deaths as a major barometer of how things are going. They never compare coalition force to insurgents because that scoreboard would be completely demoralizing to the jihadis. Instead they track civilian death rates as a major indicator of progress which telegraphs to these people that in order to “win”, they don’t have to engage security forces, all they have to do is kill unarmed civilians in back alleys. The media collects up all the reports of dead civilians and other sites suck as icasualties.org tally the results daily and present nice graphs of the carnage: http://icasualties.org/oif/IraqiDeaths.aspx
So while there is no direct “collusion” between the media and the insurgency, the media provide certain avenues to allow the insurgents to appear to be “winning” and in this case, one of them is through the killing of civilians. The media’s constant reporting of the deaths is probably causing more of them as the insurgent groups see that killing civilians is easy, much safer for their people than confronting security forces, and quite effective in their overall plan of presenting the security forces as ineffective.
“The media tends to associate these kind of press releases with escalation by the Bush administration.”
It is an interesting psychological game of projection they are playing. When Iran escalates by shipping in arms and money and training for militias, the media reports it as an escalation on OUR part. In a country that is run by votes, it is very important what the people think or the impression they have of things. 99% of America get their daily news between traffic reports during their commute. They don’t dig out information, they are spoon fed information from the organized outlets. So the media are not unaware that they can basically further their political agenda by how they present things. In this case we have a media that is for the most part the water boy for the Democrats.
News outlets such as the NY Times claim that the newspaper industry is falling apart and that they need to move to the web. I disagree. The trouble is that all the newspapers these days (save a few outlets such as the Washington Times) report the same news with the same slant. If we had 50 burger chains that provided *exactly* the same product, how many of them would stay in business?
Look at CNN and MSNBC compared to Fox in the television market. The NY Post which published the Iraqi Commission as “Surrender Monkeys” on the front page is a New York paper that has grown in the first decade of the 21st century while the Times is shrinking. I would posit that any major paper that moved away from the lockstep course of being the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party will probably do well because people will actually buy it.
Bill,
I know that all of this information is open source, but the part of me that was in SIGINT is still screaming, “It’s still bad OPSEC!” I am reminded of what the SSO guy once told me of how you can put five unclassified sentences together and have a Secret paragraph.
Crosspatch,
Or to be more accurate, the places they will go will be less safe for them than they were in the past.
If we do manage to unf**k Baghdad and our work with Anbar’s tribes continues to bear fruit, we’re still going to have to deal with the big, ugly mess that is Diyala.
Battle of Baghdad’s Order of Battle:
Bill Roggio reminds us that the Battle of Baghdad is more than a phrase. It’s an operation of war. His latest post describes the forces and strategies committed to the effort….
“Why do you think they are focused on killing civilians vice destroying the IA?”
Anything less than 10 dead Iraqis won’t make the international news at all.
The average murder rate in NYC is now two per day…it was 8 per day pre Guilliani. I never once heard a national news report of “8 people mudered again today in NYC.” Just didn’t happen.
If the Jiahdis weren’t killing civilians and US soldiers…there would be zero coverage.
The Pieces are Set
The Fourth Rail has put together an excellent summary of open source intelligence regarding the deployment of coalition forces in Baghdad. If the assessment is accurate, American forces appear to be concentrated in two districts; Al Monsour and Adhamiy…
Oh, I get what Dave is doing. General Dave is a smart guy.
There is no political force more spent than an exile. Very few come back to change a nation: Khomeinei comes to mind. Sadr should have stayed and been a brave man.
But he has run to his Patrons: the Persians-the historical enemies of the Arab peoples.
Someone put a bee in Sadr’s turban that Bush was going to bump him off and send him to bed with Jimmy Hoffa. He got scared and ran. His boys back in Sadr City are wondering what the hell happened to their Capo. He’s run. Like Saddam ran.
He’s run into the arms of the Persians!
Instead of martyrdom, potential humiliation. He’s off in the gilded cage of a Persian Guest House, under the watchful eyes of Revolutionary Guards Corps officers, while his underlings are being picked up by the Seventh Cav or being picked off by vengeful Kurds.
Demoralization sets in after awhile, you know. A far cry from the Glory Days of Najaf in 2004.
His father was a Grand Ayatollah, a learned cleric revered by his people, and martyred by Saddam. But the Moqtada? What Petraeus is doing is revealing al-Sadr to be little more that a Persian stooge who runs out on his militia. No martyrdom for the Moqtada: only shame.