On the offensive in northern Diyala

Troops from the 1st Iraqi Army Division celebrate while passing through Jalulah. Photo by Bill Murray.

JALULAH, IRAQ – For the last 10 days, the Iraqi Army has been carrying out its largest operation since 2003 here in the deserts and foothills of northern Diyala province near the Iranian border, searching for remnants of al Qaeda pushed out of urban areas by Iraqi and Coalition forces in the past year.

Iraq’s Quick Reaction Force, made up of Iraqi’s Army 1st Division and elements of the 9th Mechanized Division, operates at the discretion of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and moved from Baghdad to this area earlier in the summer. Diyala has gained a reputation as the most violent province in Iraq so far this year and is the location for the most recent female suicide bomber attacks. Nearly 50,000 Iraqi Army and Police troops and 4,000 U.S. soldiers are involves in the offensive.

“The Iraqi Army has started to clear all of the area – especially the hinterland that was controlled by al Qaeda,” said Iraqi Colonel Mounm Ashem Fahad, commander of the 1st Division’s 4th Brigade. “We have our orders from the Prime Minister that people aren’t allowed to have heavy weapons.”

The operation “Omens of Prosperity” began July 29 and has netted nearly 400 insurgents and numerous weapons caches. On Aug. 3-4, Iraqi soldiers discovered three weapons caches that included 44 rocket-propelled grenades, five RPG launchers, eight 82mm mortar rockets with fuses, 11 anti-personnel mines and five Iraqi military uniforms that could be used for suicide bomb attacks. Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in action and four soldiers were wounded.

Over the next two days, two additional caches were discovered and police captured a man who had convinced two young boys to use explosives against a military convoy. One of the boys was injured as a result and the convoy was never attacked.

“Jalulah is like a small Iraq — our fathers and grandfathers had no problems in this area in the past,” said Captain Gasan, an Iraqi Police Officer who is also Sheik within one of the local tribes during a meeting between Colonel Fahad and Iraqi Police. “Ten members of my family have been sacrificed to terrorism. I’m proud to say we are ready to sacrifice everyone to get this area away from the radical Islamists.”

Tensions between the Arab-dominated Army and the Kurdish police and Peshmerga militias were on display but remained low-key. A confiscated machine gun from one of the Kurdish parties, the socialist Kurdistan Democratic Party, was given back later in the day in return for the flying of the Iraqi flag in front of the local party headquarters.

The 4th Brigade’s U.S. Military Transition Team reported a break with the past in terms of the Iraqi Army’s behavior toward civilians. Increasingly, the army is using less aggressive counter-insurgency behavior to achieve its aims – a lesson gleaned from the US experience during the last 18 months when it changed its tactics in Iraq toward counter-insurgency.

“Many of the reports have the local people saying they’re quite happy with the way the searches have gone,” said US Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Wilson, commander of the 12-man US Military Transition Team. “They were expecting very aggressive searches, doors being beaten down, furniture broken, and things being stolen. That hasn’t been the case with these guys.”

On Aug. 7, the task force cleared areas to the east and north of Lake Hamrin, an artificial lake that is now mostly dry due to the effects of a three-year drought. Much of the area, within the Khaniqin district, is guarded by Kurdish militias, the first time in years that Iraqi and Coalition forces have travelled through the area. No incidents between the forces were reported.

“The political consolidation among the Sunnis, Shia and Kurd is already done,” said Major General Tariq Abdul Wahab Jassim, commander of Iraq’s 1st Division. “Now let us focus on one Iraq.”

The operations will continue for an undetermined time, the US Army said.

Five members of al Qaeda’s executive council were captured during the first week of operations with support from a US-led Operation “Iron Pursuit” which covers both Diyala and neighboring Salahadin province.

Iraqi and US Special Operations forces are conducting air assault into known al Qaeda rear areas deep within the Hamrin Mountains.

Tags: Iraq