Posted on 02/11/2009 3:24:53 PM PST by SandRat
TIKRIT — There are no children playing outside, no animals, no clothing lines hung or even a whisper of voices to acknowledge any sign of life in Amugaten.
The only sound heard is the whistling wind blowing clouds of dust and dead wood brush down the empty streets. Amugaten would almost seem like a ghost town, except that people do live there.
But there is a reason for the stillness; the village is plagued with Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). Sprayed on the side of a wall in white paint lettering, both in Arabic and in English, “bombs inside” sends a clear message to anyone passing through the village.
No longer wanting to remain in the shadows of impending IED threats, the people are starting to take a stand and want to bring life back into their community.
By request of village residents, Iraqi Army (IA) and U.S. forces conducted a joint mission called Operation Automatic Pursuit II, to rid the town of several known house-borne IED (HBIED) which threaten people in the area.
“We’re trying to clear out the [al Qaida in Iraq] cells,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Wayne La Clair, 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment. “We hit another location during Operation Automatic Pursuit I, and we believe the insurgents who are left have moved into this town.”
In order to remove the explosive threats in the village, IA cleared the entire village, going from house to house to ensure the villagers were moved to a safe location.
“We’ve had a lot of trouble getting clearance to both of these locations,” La Clair stated. “It has literally taken several months, so we’re going to go ahead and blow these two sites so they are no longer a threat to the local people.
“We have several joint forces working together on this mission,” La Clair said. “It is a pretty complicated mission because we have guys on the ground and guys in the air for support. When U.S. forces came here in 2007, literally some of these towns were completely rigged HBIEDs. Sometimes there would be ten or 20 structures, and each one of them would be rigged with IEDs.”
After blowing the two sites, the U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Mobile Unit 1, checked each location and cleared them to ensure no more munitions remained in the area.
“Until now, this village has been a very dangerous village,” said Staff Col. Alaa’, commander, 3rd Battalion, 18th IA Brigade. “As we went through here, the people asked us to stay and to provide security for their village.”
In order to facilitate the safe keeping of Amugaten, Alaa’ said the IA will maintain a strong presence in the village by constructing a new headquarters there and setting up various check points leading up to the village.
“There has been no IA presence in this area,” Alaa’ said. “We held a meeting with the local people and have decided to keep IA troops here and they have agreed to help us by giving us information. With IA remaining in the area, there will be no more terrorism around.”
After receiving an all clear sign from Navy EOD, some residents began to return to their homes. With IA remaining in the area, the people can begin to feel safe again.
Good luck to all of our brave guys working in this operation. God bless them all.
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