Iraqis taking control of Baghdad road

Stars and Stripes ^ | 2005 Jun 13 | Teri Weaver

[Wiz]

BAGHDAD — Nearly two weeks ago, a special force of Iraqi soldiers took up their new post along one of the city’s most infamous stretches, the link between Baghdad International Airport and the center of Iraq’s newly forming government, the highway known as Airport Road.

The first few days proved a hard test for the new battalion of 261 soldiers, according to Capt. Richard Dunbar, one of eight Americans assigned to assist the Iraqis in coordinating their patrols and responses to attacks.

“It was a rough first night,” Dunbar said.

The first attack on the troops came before midnight, and one was wounded, he said. During the next 48 hours, one soldier was killed and another six were hurt, Dunbar said.

Since then the gunfire has calmed down, Dunbar said, at least relative calm for the road that many westerners tend to call the most dangerous in the capital city. There have been fewer attacks, and the battalion has begun to gather helpful information from the neighbors, he said.

“These guys have made a tremendous impact,” he said Friday morning just outside the battalion’s headquarters, the former Kuwaiti Embassy. The Iraqi soldiers — officially called “special police” because they take orders from the Ministry of the Interior, not the Ministry of Defense — now live in the old embassy building.

[Straight Vermonter]

Another positive sign.

[Americanexpat]

The Major said the road was the same as any other road in Baghdad. I lost one of my vehicles to and IED on that road and two of my people were wounded. It is one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in Iraq.

Part of the problem was the the median between the highways, it was overgrown with vegetation and Iraqis were even planting gardens in it. Lots of opportunity to place an IED. The Army did clear a lot of that vegetation out of there, but IMO not enough.

Another problem is that the traffic trying to get to the airport or bases nearby would be backed up quite a distance waiting to be cleared. Plenty of opportunity to plant a IED while they waited in line.

My Iraqi driver told me the housing area to the right of the road going to the airport was known as Osama bin Laden village, "everyone there loves Osama."

Not just military have died on that highway, lots of contractors, Coalition civilians and innocent Iraqis have died on it too.

I still get cold shivers when I think of that IED going off just as we passed by.

[Wiz]

ping