The IZ is a fortress and appears to be pretty secure. But there's always that chance. I know what you mean about Balad...we had the same concerns when we were at Taji and occasionally bad people did get on the base there. Fortunately, they were always caught before they could do anything.
One yahoo was caught talking on his cell phone during a mortar attack on the chow hall at Taji (those were frequent but they always missed.) One mortar had just come in and they caught this idiot saying "aim the next one HIGHER" in Arabic on his cell phone. He was promptly arrested.
So, there's always that chance, and they've pulled stuff at the checkpoints but haven't managed to get into the IZ yet.
Fingers remain crossed! ;-)
"So, there's always that chance, and they've pulled stuff at the checkpoints but haven't managed to get into the IZ yet."
One of my pals was outside the local national labor gate when a dude pulled up and started pulling a bunch of AKs from his back seat. The guards smacked him down hard and fast, my pal said he was so stunned by the brazenness of it that he just stood there like a dummy.
Those local national kids (the teen laborers) made me a bit nervous, I always wondered how much the jihadis would pay them for pacing distances.
All the more so after a mortar round was placed directly on the wall of our HQ building 100 feet from my office, and people were working there (4:30AM). Fortunately no one was hurt.