With a cloud of dust, the U.S. pulls out of Najaf

Stars and Stripes ^ | June 29, 2009 | Seth Robson,

[Jet Jaguar]

NAJAF, Iraq — A stream of U.S. military trucks laden with supplies rolled down a dusty four-lane highway over the weekend, ending the U.S. presence in one of Shiite Islam’s holiest cities.

Coalition forces, including U.S., British and Spanish troops, have patrolled Najaf, with its population of around 900,000, since it was captured by the 101st Airborne Division in April 2003. The city has had its share of violence since then. Uprisings by firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia in 2004 sparked fierce fighting in the Wadi al-Salem — a sprawling cemetery where Shiites from around the world hope to be buried.

There are still attacks on U.S. forces in Najaf. A member of the 172nd Infantry Brigade — Spc. David A. Schaefer Jr., 27, of Belleville, Ill. — was killed by a roadside bomb last month on the street used by convoys shifting men and material out of Camp Tarlovsky, the city’s last U.S. base.

But U.S. military commanders here were determined to close the base, which occupied a corner of a large university, under the agreement to remove foreign troops from Iraqi cities by the end of the month.

"Everybody knows about the Americans who live over by the university," said Capt. Tom Visel, 28, who commands a detachment of soldiers moving to Forward Operating Base Endeavor, just outside the city limits. "It will probably do a lot of good that we are moving."

On Saturday, the camp was a hive of activity as soldiers packed the last of their belongings into white, four-wheel-drive vehicles and loaded military trucks with equipment.

First Lt. Katie Parke said her soldiers had 13 trucks running between the bases three times a day over the weekend.

The soldiers had used land near Camp Tarlovsky as a small-arms range and they built a shoot house to train the Iraqi army, the Najaf governor’s personal security detachment and the National Iraqi Intelligence Agency’s Anti-Terror Unit, Visel said.

"We had facilities there so they would come to us and that gave us influence among the population," said the San Antonio native.

Once a target for mortars, Camp Tarlovsky has been quiet for months.

The buildings where the soldiers lived and worked — a row of houses once occupied by university professors — are empty now. Some of the last items on the walls included a poster of a wanted insurgent and a painting of Capt. Michael Y. Tarlovsky, the former Special Forces detachment commander, killed during a raid in Najaf, for whom the camp is named.

Ahmed Jakel, a ticket agent at the new Al Najaf International Airport, said he’s happy about plans to return the U.S. base to the university.

"We try now to push our people to learning more," he said. "In Saddam’s time, many people left their studies because it was very difficult to live here."

Moving U.S. forces to bases outside Najaf is a good idea, he said.

"Our situation in Iraq is unstable," he said. "If they support the Iraqi army by aircraft, it is better. Only by air; not by land. Stay until they train our military."

There is some evidence that Shiite insurgents relocated to Najaf from Baghdad following the U.S. troop "surge." But there has not been an upswing in violence in Najaf, Visel said.

"Different groups have an interest in keeping it quiet because it is such a strategic city," he said.

[pointsal]

Is the fat toad Sadr still alive?

[Maine Mariner]

Hiding in Iran-going to Ayatollah school I believe