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Two spectacular al Qaeda prison breaks in Iraq, freeing over 500 of its members in two separate prisons simultaneously this week, demonstrate the group is back with a vengeance. Al Qaeda’s Iraq branch is also the moving force behind the jihadist success in Syria. The resurgence of al Qaeda in Iraq has sobering implications for what is likely to follow the drawdown of NATO forces in Afghanistan for the al Qaeda mother ship in Pakistan. The double jailbreaks at Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons were massive attacks. Suicide bombers, teams of attackers using mortars and small arms, and two dozen...

Students of the Twin Schools wait for the official opening of the schools in Taji, Iraq, Oct. 12. The Twin Schools will provide education to more than 1,200 children. Photo by Pfc. Adam Halleck, 1st Cavalry Division. TAJI — Following two years of hard work, a ribbon cutting ceremony here celebrated the grand opening of two schools nestled in a small village north of Baghdad, Oct. 12. Known as the “Twin Schools” to American Soldiers, the facilities can now provide the more than 1,200 students of the area with the high-quality education they deserve.In the past two years, this project...

Lt. Col. Kristan L.K. Hericks (center), CO of the 419th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion "Wolfpack," and her 419th Soldiers successfully completed a 12-month tour at Camp Taji and will be redeploying home to Irvine, Calif, soon. Photo courtesy of the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). CAMP TAJI — After a long and often-times grueling year here, the 419th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion (CSSB) "Wolfpack" is on its way home. Over the next few days, the Wolfpack Soldiers will see a Relief in Place/Transfer of Authority ceremony where they officially pass the torch to the 541st CSSB, as well as an awards...

Army Spc. Adam Feldon talks with an Iraqi boy May 4, 2009, as a patrol of Pennsylvania Army National Guard Soldiers and Iraqi Police officers moves through Taji Market, north of Baghdad. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Doug Roles. TAJI — Iraqi Security Forces and U.S. Soldiers have been hitting the streets, working together to maintain security in Taji Market, one of the busiest sectors of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s area of operations north of Baghdad. The market is a lynchpin in the security effort because it’s where the lives of locals intertwine. “Being the main market area, that’s...

Spc. Neal Cooper cleans a wound on the face of a young Iraqi child. Photo by Sgt. Ryan Nolan, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. TAJI — A Pennsylvania Army National Guard medic is making a big difference for children here by providing a little medical care.Spc. Neal Cooper, from Myerstown, Pa., is a medic assigned to the 104th Cavalry Regiment, currently working in Shaykh Amir Village here, just north of Baghdad.Cooper completed Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas in August 2008, only one month before he was to deploy to Iraq. However, Cooper was well...

TAJI, Iraq, Jan. 28, 2009 – Coalition members transferred the 4,000th armored Humvee to the Iraqi government Jan. 25 as part of a program to provide mission-capable Humvees to Iraqi security forces and on-the-job training to Iraqi mechanics. The program, based at Camp Taji here, is managed by logistics personnel from Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, with assistance from Army Materiel Command, Tank and Automotive Command, Multinational Corps Iraq and other coalition partners. The program includes a complete refurbishment of Humvees for the Iraqi Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry and Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Bureau. The project employs more than 500 Iraqis with...

TAJI — The Czech contingent, Senior Iraqi and Coalition partners gathered at the Iraqi Army Armor School here Dec. 4 to mark the Czech Republic end-of-mission and to recognize the Czechs for their work training and advising the Iraqi Army. Czech Republic Army Maj. Frantisek Grmela commanded 14 Soldiers who served as trainers and advisors to the IraqiArmy Armor School at Taji for the past six months. Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq TAJI — The Czech contingent, Senior Iraqi and Coalition partners gathered at the Iraqi Army Armor School here Dec. 4 to mark the Czech Republic end-of-mission and...

CAMP TAJI — Traffic builds while a truck struggles to make it up a sandy on-ramp as the vehicle’s driver navigates an alternate route in an attempt to bypass a damaged bridge. After some time, Iraqi Police and locals give the driver a push. The scene replayed every few minutes, frustrating military and civilian drivers alike near the city of Taji. A steep slope on the on-ramp, coupled with a lack of a hard surface, were making it hard for traffic to travel the road and causing traffic to regularly back up for half a mile. This is where the...

TAJI, Iraq– Soon a group of Iowa National Guardsmen will be leaving Iraq and leaving behind a legacy of training and friendship with their Iraqi Air Force partners.“This day I would like to say goodbye to our dear friends who gave serious assistance and backup for our air force,” said Lt. Gen. Kamal, IqAF commander. “They did a major job to build our new Air Force.”“We would like to thank their families, said Kamal. “Because they were so patient waiting for them to do their duties here. Our salute to their families to wish them all the best happiness and...

....The GOP's greatest embarrassment of all might seem to be Florida's 22nd, where the party that Iraq destroyed is running a candidate charged with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And, yet, the South Florida GOP doesn't see it that way. This year's surprise in Palm Beach County is that local Republican officials, some of whom are also presiding over more competitive races, believe their candidate is not a laughingstock but the marquee Republican of the year--that he is not a symptom of what ails the national GOP but a possible cure. Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein,...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, March 31, 2008 – As some 19-year-olds are going to college, hanging out with friends and beginning their adult life, one Multinational Division Baghdad soldier is beginning his adulthood in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Army Pvt. Derk Hayes, a Peru, Ind., native, who serves in Multinational Division Baghdad with Company C, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, receives a commander’s coin for excellence March 9, 2008, from Army Lt. Col. Richard “Flip” Wilson, commander of 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, at Camp Taji, Iraq. Photo by Sgt. Brad...

Lt. Col. Thomas Boccardi, a native of Colorado Springs, Colo., shakes hands with a newly freed man, March 19, in Tarmiya. Seven men were released from prison to Tarmiya, and 15 were transported to Taji. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. William Greer. Face of released man blocked for his protection. CAMP TAJI — Twenty-two detainees were released as part of Operation Forgiving Dragon, March 19.  Seven of the detainees were released back to the city of Tarmiya and the remaining 15 to Taji.  Both cities are located northwest of Baghdad. The Iraqi Army, Iraqi police and local leaders...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, March 27, 2008 – On Sept. 11, 2001, Nicholas Pata was a volunteer firefighter in Rockland County, N.Y., who assisted rescue efforts after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus (left) presents a commander’s coin for excellence to Army Pfc. Nicholas Pata, a New York City native who serves as a radio-telephone operator for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Multinational Division Baghdad, March 12, 2008. Photo by Staff Sgt. Christian Foster, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

Scouts, left to right, of Troop C, 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, Sgt. Jonathan Toth of Clinton, Miss.; Pfc. Zach Foege who hails from Watertown, Wisc., and Pvt. Joseph Solis of Dallas get to know an Iraqi boy during a foot patrol in the Baghdad Gardens neighborhood near Taji, Oct. 6. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs. TAJI — Soldiers from Troop C, 1st Squadron, 7th “Garryowen” Cavalry Regiment, who work out of a nearby Coalition outpost, are continuing to reach out in operations to build relationships and trust with the...

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Army Forces, with U.S. Special Forces acting as advisers, detained two leaders of rogue elements of the Jaysh al-Mahdi militia during two intelligence driven operations Aug. 24 in Baghdad and in Taji. In the first operation, Iraqi Army Scouts detained a suspected Shi’a extremist responsible for directing a criminal network of individuals who routinely attack Iraqi and Coalition Forces with improvised explosive devices and explosively formed penetrators in the New Baghdad area. The leader is also linked to a Jaysh al-Mahdi cell responsible for extrajudicial killings of innocent Iraqis. The forces also detained a second suspicious individual...

FALLUJAH, Iraq – Iraqi Security Forces conducted a helicopter assault raid July 28 detaining two known al Qaeda in Iraq cell members suspected of numerous crimes including murdering and intimidating Iraqi citizens and improvised explosive device attacks against Coalition Forces. With U.S. Special Operations Forces present as advisers, Iraqi police detained their primary suspects without incident in a remote area northwest of Taji.      The detained individuals are high-level members of an al Qaeda cell in the Qaryat al Majarrah region and directly linked to a cell leader who was also detained in the same area July 20. The first...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq — For a fourth time in two weeks, a large cache of improvised explosive device-making material and mortar rounds was turned over to Coalition Forces by the “Neighborhood Watch” in Taji, Iraq July 9.The cache contained more than 20 mortar rounds, multiple makeshift mortar tubes and mortar fuses. Also in the cache were IED timing devices and IED detonation material.This is the fourth time since the establishment of a Coalition outpost in Falahat, a village near Taji, north of the Iraqi capital, that weapons caches have been turned in or identified to Soldiers from Troop D, 1st...

TAJI, Iraq, July 5, 2007 – As the United States celebrated its Independence Day, soldiers continued working, standing guard and going on patrols staged from Coalition Outpost X-Ray near here. Pvt. Brandon Reed, a scout with Troop C, 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, climbs rapidly into a gunner’s turret on a Humvee at Coalition Outpost X-Ray, Iraq, on July 3 after his platoon receives orders to go on an unscheduled mission. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Instead of fireworks and family picnics, soldiers from Troop C, 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment,...

BAGHDAD, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. military in Iraq said it was checking whether a helicopter came down just north of Baghdad on Friday. "We're looking at reports of a possible aircraft down," a spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Josslyn Aberle, said when asked about reports from residents near the major U.S. air base at Taji that they saw a helicopter come down shortly after dawn. U.S. embassy spokesman Lou Fintor also said: "We're looking into the reports."

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2006 – A group of golf enthusiasts plans to donate golf clubs, balls, tees, mats and other golf equipment to servicemembers at Camp Taji, a military base in Iraq. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Abdul Mercado inside his living quarters at Camp Taji, Iraq. Soon Mercado and others at his base will have golf equipment donated by Golfers 4 Freedom. Courtesy photo    U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Abdul Mercado, 36, of 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery, has been playing for 13 years. For the past eight months he has been deployed to Camp Taji and hasn't been...