Iraqi army, Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers setting conditions for provincial elections with patrols

Courtesy Photo | An Iraqi army soldier from the 17th IA Division starts a fire in the reeds during an operation, in order to clear the area and deny criminal elements the ability to hide weapon caches during a combined operation with Company D, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, in Yusifiyah, Jan. 21.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

01.28.2009

Courtesy Story

2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division

By Spc. Kevin Holden
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Soldiers from the 17th Iraq Army Division and Company D, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Multi- National Division – Baghdad conducted an operation in Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad, Jan. 21.

The purpose of the combined operation was to find and clear weapons caches in the Mahmudiyah area prior to the provincial elections.

The IA and MND-B Soldiers are conducting daily operations in the area to ensure safe, secure and legitimate elections for the Iraqi people.

1st Lt. Francis De Rosa, of Lincolnwood, Ill., Company D platoon leader, partnered with Col. Wasam Abdul Razaq of 2nd Battalion, 25th Brigade, 17th IA Div., during the operation and conducted mounted-vehicle patrols in areas with a prior history of weapons caches.

In the past, criminals hid weapon caches in overgrown water canals. In an attempt to prevent this from occurring, the Soldiers to entered and inspected the miles and miles of canals.

During the operation, the combined forces cleared landscape of overgrown bushes.

"Reed burning of the canals is used to clear irrigation ditches and deeply brushed wooded areas out in farming villages in Iraq," said De Rosa.

During the combined patrol, the Soldiers went door to door in the Yusifiyah area met with area residents and asked them to participate in a population census, using the handheld, interagency, identity, detection equipment, a biometric identification system better known as the HIIDE system.

"The HIIDE system is not only used for population census data, it also stores information on potentially dangerous individuals and gives MND-B Soldiers a system to identify people living in these areas with a history of insurgents," said Staff Sgt. Derick Dillard, of Naperville, Ill.

The operation resulted in the discovery of a cache of weapons, unexploded ordnance, detonation cord and fifteen mortar rounds. The caches were removed to an alternate location and disposed of in a controlled detonation.

"This mission has been a success. As long as we are finding weapons caches and working with the locals in these areas, we will continue to patrol and search for weapons and potentially dangerous individuals," said Capt. Landgrave Smith, of Norman Okla., the commander of Company D.

• Date Taken: 01.28.2009
• Date Posted: 01.28.2009 04:38
• Story ID: 29360
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ