US Special Forces teamed with Iraqi units are engaging the Mahdi Army in Karbala while others seek to destroy al Qaeda in Diyala and elsewhere.
Iraqi Security Forces, with U.S. Special Forces as advisors, detained a high-level rogue Jaysh al-Mahdi commander in western Karbala, July 27.
Iraqi and U.S. forces detained their primary target without incident during a raid in a neighborhood in Karbala. Two other suspicious individuals present during the raid were also detained.
While preparing to leave the target location, Iraqi Security Forces and U.S. Special Forces began receiving fire from three separate locations. The team determined the attackers were using small arms weapons, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades.
As the team defended itself with well-aimed fire, killing five insurgents, rogue JAM militants fired on a helicopter assisting the team in the operation. U.S. Special Forces called in precision aerial fires that resulted in approximately a dozen insurgents killed. No Iraqi civilians were present in the area while the strike was performed.
The primary suspect commands a rogue Jaysh al-Mahdi assassination cell of over 100 armed members. He has allegedly commanded attacks against Coalition Forces using improvised explosive devices, explosively formed penetrators and mortars. He has also carried out assassinations of Iraqi civilians. His cell is also credited with the assassinations of two Iraqi government officials
But in every case where this occurs, it is in preparation for the effort to build or rebuild which is the real bulwark in the counter-terrorism strategy
Recently, the Army has been bringing embedded provincial reconstruction teams to brigades in Iraq in order to help teach Iraqi businessmen and local officials how to improve their marketability and function as part of a democratic government.
The EPRTs are teams of about 10 people who work closely with a brigade's civil affairs teams, engineers, and other staff sections to help Iraqi governance and economic development. The idea, while used in Afghanistan, is relatively new to Iraq. The first wave of EPRT personnel arrived in Iraq in April. The strategy seems to be bearing fruit already.
Lou Lantner, a native of Washington, D.C., was on his second “tour” in Vietnam as a public affairs officer with the U.S. State Department when he attended a public affairs conference and heard Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speak. She mentioned opportunities for State Department employees in Iraq, and Lantner pursued the chance.
The pursuit didn't take long, he said. A month later he left Vietnam for four weeks of training in the United States and another week in Kuwait and Iraq.
Now he heads the EPRT that works with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., helping with projects in Mahmudiyah, Yusufiyah and other villages southwest of Baghdad.
“We have civilians, active reserve and active-duty service members with us,” Lantner explained. “Together, we try to identify the moderates in Iraq, people who are supportive of the United States, and help them stand up their local governments. We also help the local government work with the national government.”
Local input is a new concept here. Saddam Hussein funded what he took a personal interest in, and most villages in the country had no say, Lanter said.
“National government is new for them,” he said. “People are getting used to this new way of doing things. They're not used to dealing with planning projects, doing budgets, submitting them to government, getting them funded – it's our job to help that happen.”
The EPRT members have sent local officials to classes on budget formation and other skills they need.
“All of this is normal, to (Americans),” he said. “But it's very new and different to our Iraqi friends.”
One of the primary responsibilities of an EPRT is refining the plans brigades already have, Lantner said. For example, the 2nd BCT already had planned a micro-loan clinic in Mahmudiyah. The EPRT helped make it functional. They also assist Iraqi businesspeople who take advantage of the micro-loans.
Another project has been veterinary care, a major concern in the agricultural area south of Baghdad, 2nd BCT's area of operations. While one EPRT member is a veterinarian, the object of the game is to get local veterinarians back in business.
“Some of the local doctors show a real interest in resuming their practice,” Lantner said. “We're not to that point yet, but we're getting there.”
Jeff Kaufman works with the U.S. Agency for International Development and is a member of the EPRT. He helps local business owners with marketing and networking to increase sales, and looks for ways that they can increase their efficiency and marketability.
“It's not just about making things; it's marketing, too,” Kaufman said. “The caveat is that it's difficult to operate in a different country,” said Kaufman. “Adapting U.S. marketing culture to Iraqi modes of doing business is different. I have to adapt myself to how their culture does business.”
Ultimately, what starts as a simple micro-loan has a huge ripple effect.
“They improve their business, which makes more jobs,” said Kaufman. Jobs are critical; many people who plant improvised explosive devices do it not because of a terrorist ideology, but simply because they were offered money to do it, and needed to feed their families.”
A second benefit is even more subtle, Kaufman said.
“If we have a micro-finance clinic, then the banks ask, ‘Why can't we do that. too?' Maybe they start offering loans and have a more competitive interest rate, and that makes credit more available for more people.”
The EPRT is trying to guide and teach without providing concrete assets, Kaufman explained.
“If we insert ourselves into the process, then when we leave, it falls apart,” he said.
He cited the example of a canal being shut off during a May search for two missing Soldiers of the 2nd BCT. The shutoff was necessary, but it affected the town of Mahmudiyah, which depends on the canal for much of its water. The incident, while unfortunate, had a benefit.
“The government became really energized,” Kaufman said. “The EPRT, the 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd BCT, and the mayor of Mahmudiyah got together and worked out ways to react next time. The local government was engaged and really realized that they were responsible for helping the people.”
The incident helped illustrate the need for emergency plans and other urban development ideas.
In the countryside, the EPRT has been helping farmers form cooperatives and associations, which will help them survive when the Iraqi government phases out subsidies.
“The farmers will be speaking with one voice,” Kaufman said. “That will help them with enhancing their production and buying input items like seed and fertilizer. Over time, they will reap the benefits.”
The fact that the EPRT's successes are not as visible as kinetic military operations – they don't result in captured terrorists, for example – makes it difficult, even for the team, to determine what success is, but they can feel it.
“We're trending in the right direction,” Kaufman said.
“I think we'll know in the next three or four months if we're successful,” Lantner offered. “We've seen a lot of gains, but it's too early to tell if it will continue. I like to think it will.”
Al Anbar Province, pacified for months now, is an example
Despite ongoing insurgent turmoil in some tough Iraqi neighborhoods, a North Dakota Soldier is seeing a number of projects take shape helping residents there.
Master Sgt. Kevin Mayer, Gulf Region Central district, Gulf Region Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, oversaw the completion of a new fire station last week for Kharma - a city of 75,000 residents near Fallujah, Iraq.
He says the Kharma Fire Chief is thrilled to have that additional capability and three new fire trucks are scheduled to be delivered soon.
That community has two fire stations, an older one in the northeast corner of town, and the newer one now serving residents on the south side where the city’s industrial area is also located. “The fire chief is pleased with the quality of construction and the quicker response time two fire stations now offer,” Mayer said. Approximately a half-dozen fire fighters are expected to man the facility on a full-time basis.
The $400,000 project included the construction of a 16x25-meter masonry structure with two bays for four vehicles, sleeping quarters, a kitchen, an office, a conference room, and an emergency generator.
With 28 years service, Mayer is a member of the North Dakota Army National Guard’s 34th Infantry Division and began his one-year deployment in April 2007.
His workload also includes supervising the installation of 22 rural water treatment facilities in Al Anbar Province of which four were completed this week. “Potable water is now available in communities ranging in size from 2,500 to 10,000 residents. Their only choice before was taking raw water directly from canals or the Euphrates River posing serious health risks. This is the kind of work I was hoping to be involved with, improving the lives of Iraqi families.”
Mayer knows something about meeting people’s needs. In his civilian career, he’s been the Public Works supervisor for 16 years at Casselton, ND, a town of 2,200 residents. He’s in charge of the city’s water and sewer system, road work, park repairs, and trash/garbage pickup. “There’s something very satisfying in working through the challenges and assisting others.”
