Iraqi soldiers and Sons of Iraq secure market in Tarmiyah as Americans watch

Nathan Webster is an independent journalist who embedded with the US Army in Tarmiyah in Salahadin province, Iraq. Nathan is providing reports from Tarmiyah for The Long War Journal.

TARMIYAH, IRAQ: Iraqi children play afternoon soccer in the dusty field almost directly below the rooftop positions of Checkpoint 121, a sign of how far the city of Tarmiyah has come.

In 2007, when al Qaeda controlled this area 25 miles north of Baghdad, this same field was used for executions by beheading as shariah law was enforced. Painted-over graffiti on an unused water tower once threatened Coalition forces and the Iraqis who helped them.

American soldiers from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, actually enjoy their rotations at this checkpoint in downtown Tarmiyah. Unlike the six days of straight-out missions and duties when they’re back at the Joint Security Station just a half-mile away, here they have time to sit back and relax, sort of.

“This is like our R&R,” one soldier said. Manning guard positions, generally on a four-hours-on, eight-off rotation, it’s a chance for them to catch up on lots of sleep. The Americans do not man traffic-control positions. That’s the Iraqis’ job.

The Americans do conduct nightly patrols down the market street, still lit after curfew, or along the dark north and south streets, where sounds from the marshes of the Tigris River are a noisy backdrop. There, the NCOs talk to the leaders of several Sons of Iraq and Iraqi Army checkpoints, making sure that they are manned, and verifying that the local Iraqis are doing their job.

The Americans at Joint Security Station Tarmiyah are already “outside the wire” of Camp Taji a few miles away, and soldiers at Checkpoint 121 are a little further outside, manning positions on Tarmiyah’s eastern edge, at a T-intersection of primary north-south entry points to the Sunni city of about 75,000 people.

The checkpoint is in a compound of buildings making up Bhukary Hall, a large meeting area just outside the city’s main marketplace. The squad-sized element of soldiers man rooftop positions and a Stryker infantry vehicle, adding even more firepower, is parked outside. A company of Iraqi soldiers are stationed here as well, with several armored vehicles. .

In Tarmiyah itself, the Iraqis handle most of the local security, with Sons of Iraq manning small positions throughout the city. A mix of Sons of Iraq members and Iraqi soldiers from the 37th Brigade work together, tenuously. The two groups don’t trust or like each other. The Shia-dominated Iraqi Army is not trusted in this Sunni region, and there are often disagreements between the local Sons of Iraq, who might recognize a local resident and give him the benefit of the doubt, and the Iraqi Army, who might demand a search anyway.

A recent daytime attack, by a bomb-laden moped driven by a 15-year-old boy, killed two Sons of Iraq members at a bunker just 200 yards away from Checkpoint 121 and just as significantly, 150 yards away from the market itself and a second bunker at the entrance to the home of Sheikh Imad, leader of the local Sons of Iraq, and his father, Sheikh Sa’ed Jassim, a very influential leader of the local Mashadani tribe. The explosion also injured about 15 local residents, but Sheikh Imad and Sheikh Jassim were uninjured.

In a tragic way, the deaths were not in vain. While it’s unlikely the moped would have reached the sheik’s home itself, just the act of being able to get the moped-borne bomb into the marketplace itself would have been a victory, likely by al Qaeda-linked terrorists, though some nationalist Sunni insurgent groups also operate in the area.

It was a lesson learned. Other checkpoints, either Sons of Iraq or Iraqi Army, had been in the habit of letting mopeds pass unmolested. Once again, soldiers at traffic-control points often learn what to check only after something bad has happened.

“The American soldiers at Checkpoint 121 don’t often respond to incidents, and their job here is almost exclusively overwatch. But, after the moped bomb, the first response was from soldiers at Checkpoint 121, who returned to their position once soldiers responded from the JSS itself. About a dozen wounded were brought to the nearby hospital and some were treated at the JSS itself.”

At the start of one two-day checkpoint cycle, U.S. Staff Sergeant Adam Lisius does his rounds, checking along the concertina wire and IA checkpoints. It’s important, he says, to double check that Iraqi soldiers haven’t wandered off and are actually at their positions.

At the first post Lisius checks, only one soldier is present. There should be two. Lisius, who knows a few Arabic phrases, tries to establish that the second Iraqi soldier will be returning. The lone Iraqi seems reassuring.

As he walks to the other checkpoint, however, Lisius doesn’t seem convinced. He checks one more position, but then walks back to the lone soldier. There he waits until the second Iraqi reappears from a bathroom break. All’s well.

On a patrol by another unit, U.S. Staff Sergeant Agaiotueu Tuiolemotu chides another Iraqi unit, this time the two soldiers in the checkpoint just outside Bhukary Hall. The two soldiers are sitting outside their bunker. The weapons are inside the bunker. The Iraqis’ M240 machine gun could be grabbed quickly by one of the Iraqi soldiers, but that soldier’s body would be completely unprotected – which defeats the point of the bunker.

The two Iraqis tell Tuiolemotu, through “Arthur” the interpreter – nicknamed like most Iraqis who work for the coalition to protect their identity – that they understand what he wants them to do, and that they’ll move into their bunker. But absolutely everything in their body language says they are telling the American only what he wants to hear, and as soon as he’s gone, they will resume their positions in the comfortable chairs in the cool night air.”Sitting in front of their weapons. What’s the point of that?” Tuiolemotu asks rhetorically, as the American squad re-enters the compound for a night’s sleep.

Nevertheless, the relationship between the Americans and the Iraqis is obviously a decent one, respectful and even friendly. In the morning, one Iraqi soldier, in his own company area outside the American compound, offers a bottle of hot chai tea up to the rooftop Americans. He makes an impressive underhanded throw to the second story, clearing both the roof and the high canvas-lined fenceline.

Spec Eric Cutchall, who over the past six months has picked up a decent bit of Arabic pleasantries – the most in the squad, the other soldiers say – yells “shukran,” or “thank you” to the Iraqis down below.

Tags: Iraq