Photo By Staff Sgt. Joshua Ford | Spc. John Green, military police officer, 303rd Military Police Company, a reserve...... read more read more
Subscribe
By Sgt. Joshua R. Ford
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs Office
BAYJI, Iraq— Bayji lost more than 20 Iraqi police June 25 to a car bomb filled with 1,500 pounds of homemade explosives. After the attack many policemen stopped going to work, in fear that they might be killed as well.
Now paratroopers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, and Soldiers from the 303rd Military Police Company, a reserve unit out of Jackson, Mich., are working to fill the ranks of the Iraqi police force in Bayji as well as stand up a localized force in the city.
The force will have to start rebuilding from scratch because the attack destroyed all of the Bayji police supplies and training records, said Spc. John Green, military policeman and native of Cleveland, Ohio, 303rd Military Police Company.
A lot of the Iraqi police assets were destroyed during the attack. The only things salvaged were more than five rifles, a pistol belt and three patrol vehicles.
The police force had just received more than 20 patrol vehicles two months prior to the attack.
"(The police) are slowly starting to return to work," said Sgt. Molly Black, administrative non-commissioned officer, 303rd Military Police Company. "And the reason they are coming back is to make Bayji safer."
More than three weeks have passed since the attack on the station.
"A big part of the training is just building up their confidence again. Trying to make it so they are not so afraid and convince them that it is not certain death every time they go on a patrol," said Green.
Capt. Timothy Peterman, commander, Company C, is creating a new force in the city with a tactic that has successfully been used in other parts of Iraq.
"Right now circumstances are so dire that (leadership) has authorized us to conduct negotiations at our level to hire local security forces," said Peterman.
The local security force will consist of one commander for each of Bayji's 12 neighborhoods. Each commander will have 100 volunteer fighters from his neighborhood under his command.
Each neighborhood leader will be elected by Bayji's city counsel.
The volunteer force for each neighborhood will be trained by U.S. Soldiers and Iraqi police in Bayji.
The force should be stood up by the beginning of August.
"With the (car bomb) attack here three weeks ago, that was enough of an igniter to push us to that next level, these people are just sick and tired of the violence that al-Qaida and the Islamic State of Iraq bring here," said Peterman.
| Date Taken: | 08.01.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 08.01.2007 16:42 |
| Story ID: | 11580 |
| Location: | BAYJI, IQ |
| Web Views: | 221 |
| Downloads: | 173 |
This work, Building the force in Bayji, by SSG Joshua Ford, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
