Operation Arrowhead Ripper: the surge kicks in

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12398&Itemid=21



[rquoter]FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20070619-01
June 19, 2007

Task Force Lightning strikes al-Qaeda
Multi-National Division – North PAO


BAQOUBA, Iraq – Task Force Lightning commenced Operation Arrowhead Ripper today in a large-scale effort to eliminate al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorists operating in Baqouba and its surrounding areas.

The 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, launched the offensive with a quick-strike nighttime air assault earlier today.

By daylight, attack helicopters and ground forces had engaged and killed 22 anti-Iraqi forces in and around Baqouba.

“The end state is to destroy the al-Qaeda influences in this province and eliminate their threat against the people,” said Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deputy commanding general, operations, 25th Infantry Division. “That is the number one, bottom-line, up-front, in-your-face, task and purpose.”

Approximately 10,000 Soldiers, with a full complement of attack helicopters, close air support, Strykers and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, are taking part in Arrowhead Ripper, which is still in its opening stages. Elements of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas, the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, and the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, are also participating in the operation.

“One of the keys as we initiate combat actions and operations here is the newly formed Diyala Operations Center,” Bednarek said. “It serves as an integration center that will coordinate all activities in Diyala – the police, the army and Coalition Forces from Task Force Lightning.”

“The key significance, though, is getting the Iraqi ministries engaged to provide fundamental goods and services, such as food, fuel, displaced persons support, and education,” Bednarek continued. “The governor will have oversight and the people will start to see improved basic services which will build the trust and confidence of the people not only in the provincial government, but in the central government as well.”[/rquoter]

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http://patdollard.com/2007/06/18/alert-10000-troops-storm-diyala/

[rquoter] Alert: 10,000 Troops Storm Diyala

Apocalypse now

The crime here is, this was all predicted on this website since mid-April, but not in the MSM. They gave us only body counts without context, instead of the narrative of the campaign that was leading to this final showdown with Al Qaeda in Diyala. See the links in the opening sentence of the post below to see how long I’ve been laying this out. Mid April. As exploding bridges and other horrific acts of violence ripped Baghdad and its environs, we knew that they were the violent, desperate acts of the cornered Al Qaeda beast. But the MSM and Congress wanted you to believe they were all just signs of more of the same, of hopelesness, instead of the darkly ironic signs of true hope that they were. This is a dark, shameful age in America.[/rquoter]

[rquoter]AP News Alert

Jun 19 02:13 AM US/Eastern

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. military says about 10,000 American troops have launched an offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. The assault, dubbed “Operation Arrowhead Ripper,” took place in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province, and involved air assaults under the cover of darkness, the military said in a statement. The operation was still in its opening stages, it said. On Monday, military officials said U.S. and Iraqi forces had launched attacks on Baghdad’s northern and southern flanks to clear out Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida fighters and Shiite militiamen who had fled the capital and Anbar during a four-month-old security operation.[/rquoter]

 

http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/06/the_battle_of_the_be.php

[rquoter]The Battle of the Belts

”Major Operations” underway in the regions surrounding Baghdad

By DJ Elliott and Bill Roggio

With the last U.S. combat brigade to hit the ground over the last two weeks as part of the surge, Multinational Forces Iraq has declared the beginning of “major combat operations” in the belts regions surrounding Baghdad. The Baghdad Belts, which included Eastern Anbar, northern Babil, and southern Salahadin and Diyala provinces, has long been a staging area for al Qaeda and insurgent operations into Baghdad, and a key part of the Baghdad Security Plan is denying these regions to the enemy.

In the June 16 briefing given by Defense Robert Gates, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, General Petraeus explained that the past four months have set the stage for the "large, coordinated offensive operations" which kicked off over the weekend. The combat, logistics and intelligence pieces have been "put in place over the past several months," while a clear intelligence picture was developed of the regions surrounding Baghdad. "We have been doing what we might call shaping operations in a lot of these different areas [in the belts], feeling the edges, conducting intelligence gathering, putting in special operators."

The picture on the Battle of the Belts is still developing. Based on the available open source information, current operations are ongoing to the north, west and south of Baghdad. Multiple U.S. and Iraqi units are operating at the brigade and division level.

South of Baghdad: Northern Babil/Southern Diyala.

Multinational Division Center was established specifically to deal with the regions south of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi forces kicked off Operation Marne in the region directly south of Baghdad. It appears operations across the entire 3rd Division’s area of operations are underway. Over 1,200 soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division are operating in Arab Jabour in the southeastern sector, and some reports indicated operations were underway in Salman Pak. U.S. soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment conducted a company-sized operation in the city of Dura'iya on June 17.

The “Fiyahs” region, made up of Mahmudiyah, Iskandariyah and Yusifiyah and also known as the Triangle of Death, has been the subject of numerous combat operations after the abduction of 3 U.S. soldiers near Mahmudiyah in May. Over 6,000 U.S. and Iraq Army and police forces poured into the region as part of the search, which is still ongoing.

West of Baghdad: Eastern Anbar province/Thar Thar.

Iraqi and Coalition forces are also said to be conducting a major operation in the Thar Thar region. This is an area where Baathists have settled, and numerous weapons caches were prepositioned in anticipation of the current insurgency. The Thar Thar region, which includes the sprawling Munthana complex, an ideal location for al Qaeda and insurgents to stage operations as it is strategically located near Baghdad, Samarra, Balad, Ramadi and Fallujah. The Jazeera desert region has been the focus of numerous Coalition and Iraqi Army operations over the two years, and the Iraqi Army has been conducting independent operations in this area.

Iraqi and Coalition forces are also conducting operations in the Abu Ghraib region directly west of Baghdad, while the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit just arrived in eastern Anbar province. The 13th MEU is based from Taqaddum Air Base near Habbaniyah, which is between Fallujah and Ramadi. The Marines have hit the ground running, and are said to be conducting combat operations. This comes at Regimental Combat Team – 6 is working on clearing Karma, an al Qaeda haven in Karma.

North of Baghdad: Southern Salahadin, Diyala province.

The reporting on combat operations in Southern Salahadin and Diyala province is vague. Iraqi Army and police units recently moved about 650 personnel into Samarra in the wake of the attack on the al-Askaria mosque last week. Small units of Army and Police formations were sent ad hoc, which indicates the larger formations are tasked for offensive operations.

The “Diyala Campaign” has been signaled for some time. The region – which expands beyond the belts – has been an al Qaeda command and control center for al Qaeda, and Baquba has been declared the capitol of al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq. Al Qaeda has established training camps, weapons caches and bunkers and fighting positions throughout the eastern province. Much of al Qaeda’s suicide offensive into Baghdad has been thought to have been launched from Diyala.

Shaping operations have been ongoing in Diyala province for some time, as U.S. and Iraq forces have worked to clear sections of Baquba and Buhritz, as well as establish forward outposts up and down the Diyala River Valley. About 2,000 Kurdish “Pehmerga,” which may be Kurdish Regional Guard and not Iraqi Army units are being deployed to Diyala. The Iraqi government has stated it is deploying forces to Diyala to crush al Qaeda. Two Iraqi Army Brigades and one Iraqi National Police Brigade have been deployed to Taji, just east of Diyala, and will likely be used as part of the Diyala Campaign.

Endgame: Baghdad

After months of preparation, the Baghdad Security Operation is now fully underway. The operations in the Baghdad belts and greater Diyala come as U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to establish the Joint Security Stations and Combat Outposts inside Baghdad, and clear and hold the neighborhoods. At last count, forty percent of Baghdad is now considered secure. Major, mass casualty suicide attacks inside the capital have been few and far between the past several weeks, while mortar attacks, IED strikes and small scale bombings and shootings are still a major threat.

Securing the belts will allow the Iraqi and Coalition forces to continue to secure Baghdad, and reduce al Qaeda and the insurgency’s access to weapons caches, bases of operations and support from outside the city. The next step is a political solution: resolution on key issues such as reconciliation, corruption, oil laws and adjusting the constitution must follow. These are contentious issues within the Iraqi government. But the security environment must be established to provide the political space needed to address these issues.[/rquoter]

 

Michael Yon's whole post is too long to re-post here, but there's an excerpt below. read the whole thing tho, since it's news you won't get anywhere else. he's unusually cleared about the war, and makes no bones about highlighting mistakes- he also understands why we must win.

[rquoter]The doctor has made a decision: Al Qaeda must be excised. That means a large scale attack, and what appears to be the most widespread combat operations since the end of the ground war are now unfolding. A small part of that larger battle will be the Battle for Baquba. For those involved, it will be a very large battle, but in context, it will be only one of numerous similar battles now unfolding. Just as this sentence was written, we began dropping bombs south of Baghdad and our troops are in contact.

Northeast of Baghdad, innocent civilians are being asked to leave Baquba. More than 1,000 AQI fighters are there, with perhaps another thousand adjuncts. Baquba alone might be as intense as Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah in late 2004. They are ready for us. Giant bombs are buried in the roads. Snipers—real snipers—have chiseled holes in walls so that they can shoot not from roofs or windows, but from deep inside buildings, where we cannot see the flash or hear the shots. They will shoot for our faces and necks. Car bombs are already assembled. Suicide vests are prepared.

The enemy will try to herd us into their traps, and likely many of us will be killed before it ends. Already, they have been blowing up bridges, apparently to restrict our movements. Entire buildings are rigged with explosives. They have rockets, mortars, and bombs hidden in places they know we are likely to cross, or places we might seek cover. They will use human shields and force people to drive bombs at us. They will use cameras and make it look like we are ravaging the city and that they are defeating us. By the time you read this, we will be inside Baquba, and we will be killing them. No secrets are spilling here.

Our jets will drop bombs and we will use rockets. Helicopters will cover us, and medevac our wounded and killed. By the time you read this, our artillery will be firing, and our tanks moving in. And Humvees. And Strykers. And other vehicles. Our people will capture key terrain and cutoff escape routes. The idea this time is not to chase al Qaeda out, but to trap and kill them head-on, or in ambushes, or while they sleep. When they are wounded, they will be unable to go to hospitals without being captured, and so their wounds will fester and they will die painfully sometimes. It will be horrible for al Qaeda. Horror and terrorism is what they sow, and tonight they will reap their harvest. They will get no rest. They can only fight and die, or run and try to get away. Nobody is asking for surrender, but if they surrender, they will be taken.

We will go in on foot and fight from house to house if needed. We will shoot rockets into their hiding spaces, and our snipers will shoot them in their heads and chests. This is where all that talk of cancer and big ideas of what should be or could be done will smash head on against the searing reality of combat.

These words flow on the eve of a great battle, but are on hold until the attack is well underway. Nothing is certain. I am here and have been all year. We are in trouble, but we have a great General. The only one, I have long believed, who can lead the way out of this morass. Iraq is not hopeless. Iraq can stand again but first it must cast off these demons. And some of the demons must be killed.[/rquoter]