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WASHINGTON, April 30, 2008 – Most Iraqi people now reject the violence that has plagued their neighborhoods and the extremists who have been inciting the violence, a senior official in the region said today. “We increasingly see a commitment to economic development and reconstruction. That is the path that leads to prosperity and the broadest opportunity for all Iraqis to share in it,” said Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, in a news conference. In places where Iraqi citizens have rejected the violence, people are returning to their homes and capitalizing on improving local...

PATROL BASE YATES — As part of their commitment to keeping insurgents away, members of the Sons of Iraq built a checkpoint on a narrow stretch of road through Fuhail Mujeer Village, 25 kilometers southwest of Baghdad, April 25. As recently as December, Rakkasan Soldiers of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), established a presence in the area, which was previously an insurgent safe haven. Now Soldiers from 2nd Platoon, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, assigned to their battalion’s Company D, are living at the newly built Patrol Base Yates and working with the SoI...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq, April 28, 2008 – After months of intensive training at Fort Benning, Ga., and a rotation to the National Training Center, in Fort Irwin, Calif., the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team deployed here in March 2007, prepared to accomplish their mission. Army Capt. Josh Beard, from Opelika, Ala., the civil-military operations officer for 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery, greets a worker who helped set up a well and filtration system at a girls school in Narhwan, Iraq. The 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team established relationships with citizens through community projects and...

TIKRIT, Iraq – Local citizens in the Diyala Province fended off an attack from al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists April 28.Coalition forces received information from local leaders that citizens and local Sons of Iraq fought against an enemy attack and killed 12 AQI terrorists.One Sons of Iraq member was also killed and three were wounded.There were also several local citizens wounded.“Iraqi citizens are tired of the insurgent’s violence and are stepping up to help keep their fellow citizens safe,” said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, spokesperson for Multi-National Division-North.-30-

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2008 – Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division are working with Iraqi Army troops to help create a Daughters of Iraq program to complement the work done by the Sons of Iraq. The Iraqi women in the program would be able to search other females at security checkpoints, expanding the capabilities of the Sons of Iraq currently manning the checkpoints. The Sons of Iraq are an organization of volunteers who have united to stand against terrorists in their homeland. They have been credited with helping bring peace to much of Iraq. Steve Martinez, a law enforcement professional...

BAGHDAD – Sons of Iraq led Multi-National Division – Center Soldiers from Troop C, 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, and Iraqi Policemen with 3rd Brigade, 1st National Police Division to a large weapons cache in Tameem, a town east of Baghdad, April 14. The cache was buried approximately 500 meters from the NPheadquarters in Tameem. “The cache had been in the ground a long time,” said 1st Lt. Andrew Ellison, from Coleman, Ala., a squad leader in Troop C. “EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) Soldiers estimated that the munitions had been buried for over a year based on their condition.” The...

Click the image to view the slideshow of the Sons of Iraq in Hawr Rajab at the "Village of Hope." During General David Petraeus' testimony to Congress on the progress of the war in Iraq, he referred to the great security gains of the last year, which largely hold even in the face of clashes between Shia militias and government forces in Sadr City, Basrah, and much of the South. General Petraeus credited a substantial portion of those security gains in many areas of Iraq in the last year to the duel phenomena of Sahawa (Awakening) councils and the...

"Awakening" movements across Iraq are helping to rid Sunni neighbourhoods of extremist influence, writes Colin FreemanKhalil Mohammed Abbas, a haggard, chainsmoking ex-Iraqi army officer, has good reason to puff on every cigarette as if it were his last. After helping his neighbours in Baghdad rise up against the al-Qa'eda thugs who have terrorised them, he lives in constant expectation that the threats text-messaged to his mobile phone may one day come real. "They are from al-Qa'eda, and they tell me I am a mercenary," he says, reading out the latest missive to bleep into his inbox. "They ask how I...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2008 – Coalition forces killed one terrorist and detained 22 suspects during operations targeting al Qaeda in central and northern parts of Iraq today, according to coalition press releases. A close associate of a senior al Qaeda leader who attacked Sons of Iraq groups in Anbar province was the target of an operation in Baghdad. Upon moving into the target building, coalition forces encountered a man with a weapon. Perceiving hostile intent, they engaged and killed him. Eight suspected terrorists were detained during the operation. Also in Baghdad, coalition forces conducted a precision operation capturing an alleged...

The Iraqi security force known as Sons of Iraq opened its first office in Fallujah Wednesday in a ceremony attended by Iraqi government officials. Faleh al-Dulami, a spokesman for the group, said the opening of the office foreshadows several others pending in Fallujah following the March 10 approval of a headquarters for the group by councilmen from the area. Ahmed Abu Risha, the leader of the Awakening Councils, a Sunni group overseeing the militia, attended the ceremony with several Fallujah representatives and government officials, Voices of Iraq said. The brother of Abu Risha, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, established the Awakening...

WASHINGTON, March 12, 2008 – A car bomb exploded at a “Sons of Iraq” headquarters building in Duluyiah, Iraq, yesterday, killing seven Iraqis and injuring 11 others. A member of the local security group fired at the driver of the explosive-loaded pick-up truck, but the driver was able to detonate the bomb. Elsewhere in Iraq yesterday, U.S. Special Forces soldiers in Kut destroyed a vehicle transporting weapons and explosives. Iraqi security forces were patrolling in the city and attacked. They requested assistance from a nearby U.S. Special Forces unit. Several enemy fighters were killed, and two vehicles carrying machine guns...

HAWIJAH, Iraq, March 2, 2008 – The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff walked through the bustling market street of this Iraqi town today – a town that al Qaeda ruled just three months ago. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen saw a market crowded with people and shops stocked with goods. And he saw American soldiers and their Iraqi security forces partners operating with incredible professionalism. Three months ago, this northern Iraqi city was the “Wild West,” said Army Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of Multinational Division North. But a new sheriff came to town in the form of the...

March 01, 2008, 0:40 a.m. Sons of IraqA grassroots surge against al-Qaeda. By Pete Hegseth East Rashid, Baghdad — A young man wearing a tan shirt emblazoned with the Iraqi flag and with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder approaches the doorway of Saint John’s Church, peeks inside, and motions to the American G.I. sergeant standing next to me. They step outside and I watch as the Iraqi makes a sign of the cross, points to the building, and then points to the American’s M-4 rifle, and waves his hand. After a few seconds, the sergeant gets it: no...

DIYALA PROVINCE, Iraq, March 1, 2008 – Citizens who had been assisting with security efforts in Baqouba as “Sons of Iraq” agreed to return to their duties following a meeting among Sons of Iraq representatives, provincial officials and coalition and Iraqi military leaders yesterday at the Diyala provincial governance center. "We discussed the situation in detail, … and all parties agreed that the Sons of Iraq and their leaders would return to work," Army Lt. Col. John Steele, deputy commander of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, said after the meeting. Media reports of thousands of Diyala security...

QAHIRA — ‘Sons of Iraq’ (SoI) in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Qahira play a large role in securing their backyard through local checkpoints. Lt. Col Michael Pemrick, a Greenwich, N.Y., native, who serves as deputy commander for 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division — Baghdad, said these local forces are one of the key elements in the recent reduction of violence in the area. SoI is a splinter group of the highly successful Concerned Local Citizens program rooted throughout Iraq. Program members have proven themselves invaluable to Coalition and Iraqi security forces, pointing out insurgents and...

BAGHDAD – A Sons of Iraq group discovered a weapons cache near Sabah Nissan, a village east of Baghdad, and turned it over to Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery, Feb. 5. The Soldiers secured the site, awaiting the arrival of an explosive ordnance disposal team from the 789th EOD Company, from Fort Benning, Ga., to dispose of the munitions. The cache consisted of two rocket-propelled grenades, one 130 mm artillery round, one 120 mm tank round, one 60 mm mortar round and one 57 mm mortar round. “The Sons of Iraq continue to prove their worth when they...

Cindy Sheehan, Tom Hayden, and the Hate America Left meet with pro-Ba'athist members of the Iraqi parliament to discuss “peace.” TO FIND PEOPLE WHO HATE AMERICA AS MUCH AS THEY DO, the Fifth Column Left had to go halfway around the world to meet with Iraqi political leaders who call terrorism “honorable national resistance” and say foreign jihadists “are guaranteed Paradise” – and at least one of whom has ties to militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. By the end of the trip, the American leftists would echo these sentiments. Somehow most of the media – occupied with interminable coverage of Hurricane...