Troops closely monitoring Diyala to drive out insurgents, neutralize weapons left behind

[unhappycamper]

U.S. soldiers with "Stryker" Regiment patrol in Iraq's Diyala province on Wednesday as a group of Iraqi schoolchildren pass by.


Troops closely monitoring Diyala to drive out insurgents, neutralize weapons left behind
By Drew Brown, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, January 25, 2008

AL ALI, Iraq — When U.S. soldiers with 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment pushed into the upper Diyala River valley two weeks ago, they came expecting a fight.

But, aside from a few ineffective potshots during the first couple of days, direct engagement with the al-Qaida fighters they came to find has been practically nonexistent.

Instead, what the Vilseck, Germany-based troops have found in this region, approximately 40 miles northeast of Baghdad and known as “the breadbasket” to U.S. forces, has proved to be much more dangerous — scores of roadside bombs, cars rigged with explosives, booby-trapped houses and date palm groves studded with landmines.

So now the troops face a twofold task: ferreting out the insurgents who they say have taken refuge in a frightened and terrorized population and finding the deadly explosives those fighters have left behind.

Only then can the soldiers focus on re-establishing local government and start reconstruction projects.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51895



uhc comment: Looking at the pictures in this article, I can clearly remember the monsoons and how miserable we were 40 years ago.