On February 7th, Bill Roggio reported
al-Qaeda has stepped up its car and suicide bombing campaign, attacking soft targets in the city such as markets, pet shops, and mosques, with deadly results. While Al-Qaeda is said to have pulled out of Baghdad, an American intelligence official informs us al-Qaeda has largely withdrawn to Diyala province, and is ferrying in suicide bombers into the city. Al-Qaeda is stepping up its bombing campaign in an effort to both discredit the security operations and incite sectarian attacks.
This province has been a strategic target for US and Iraqi forces since January, when the "1st Cavalry Division, defeated “The Council,” a known terrorist group which has historically targeted families and tribes with violence throughout the region". Later in February, Diyala was the subject of Operation Arrowhead.
The operations here are on-going. As the new security plan achieves success in Baghdad, the bad guys are continuing to flee to outlying areas, especially Diyala province. And because of its location it is seen as a strategic battleground for al Qaida. This activity is pushing back the schedule for Diyala.
...increased attacks by Sunni insurgents could delay the transfer of Diyala province, which lies just northeast of Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon told The Associated Press.
Mixon is the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, which includes Diyala.
“The potential is there” to hand over provinces “except in Diyala, where the future remains in question,” Mixon said. “I’m not optimistic” about Diyala “given the current situation.”
A new security crackdown in Baghdad has encouraged mostly Sunni extremists to flee the capital for surrounding provinces, especially Diyala, Mixon said.
This weekend, al Qaida was dealt a severe setback
An informant’s tip led Iraqi Police officers from Judidah, Iraq, and Coalition force members from the 1-12 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, to a large improvised explosive device cache in the Baqubah area Saturday.
The cache consisted of:
• 2 explosively formed projectiles in various stages of assembly
• One completed improvised mine and more than a dozen others in various stages of construction
• More than two dozen mortar rounds and 15 rockets
• Over 130 disks capable of producing as many individual EFPs
• Six rocket launchers
• Five anti-aircraft rounds
• Over two dozen RPG warheads
• More than 400 plastic and steel containers in various stages of fabrication for IED construction
• Large quantities of IED-making material such as detonation cord, C4, blasting caps, fuses, EFP launching tubes, bags of ball bearings and voltage regulators"The vigilance of the Iraqi Police and the willingness of the people of Diyala to end the cycle of violence led to this discovery,” said Col. David W. Sutherland, 3-1 Cav. commander and senior U.S. Army officer in Diyala province.
Ordinance found in this cache can be traced back to Iran
U.S. and Iraqi forces have seized a large weapons cache that includes parts for sophisticated roadside bombs that are believed to originate in Iran, U.S. military investigators said.
The details of the find were expected to be announced Monday at a news conference in Baghdad.
But military officials told said the arsenal is one of the biggest found north of the Iraqi capital and contains components for so-called EFPs — explosively formed projectiles that fire a slug of molten metal that can penetrate armored vehicles.
The U.S. military has said elite Iranian corps are funneling EFPs to Shiite militias in Iraq for use against American troops. The area where the cache was found is dominated by Sunni insurgents but also includes pockets of Shiites.
As the rats flee the exterminators working in Baghdad, we'll continue reporting on Diyala as the province as where old Islamists come to die in Iraq.
