Courtesy Photo | First Lieutenant Manuel A. Orozco (left), detachment commander, 15th Explosive Hazards...... read more read more
CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE MAREZ, Iraq —When 1st Lt. Manuel A. Orozco, detachment commander, 15th Explosive Hazards Team, 130th Engineer Brigade, first met Lt. Col. Ahmed Subhi al-Fahal, he did not know what to make of the young Iraqi policeman.
Lt. Col. al-Fahal, the Riot Dispersion Unit commander with the Salah ad-Din provincial police, was a force to be reckoned with. Remembered for his tough dedication to eradicating insurgents from Iraq, he was, according to Orozco, a very controversial figure in the war on insurgency.
"He was known to his peers and locals as the 'Bad Boy of Tikrit,'" Orozco said. "He was very aggressive and thorough, and he was effective at finding caches, capturing high value targets and conducting interrogations."
Along the way, al-Fahal made many friends and many enemies. The people of Tikrit loved him. People knew he was trustworthy, and his relationship with the populace enabled him to find the enemy. If he said he was going to get an insurgent, the people knew he would do it.
"The people loved him because he kept Tikrit organized and clean, and he prevented it from becoming a safe haven for insurgents," Orozco said.
His success, however, made him unpopular with some of his peers and with insurgents. With no formal education, al-Fahal was relatively young to be in the position he held. According to Orozco, many people he worked with were jealous over his ability to get results when older, more experienced police men could not. He also said al-Fahal wasn't afraid of raiding other IP stations he believed suffered from corruption.
Al-Fahal loved the U.S. forces. Orozco and al-Fahal worked together with the National Information and Investigation Agency, an Iraqi intelligence analysis group. Orozco said he hoped the RDU and NIIA could help each other better fight insurgents in Iraq. When the NIIA declined to work with him due to the extreme sensitivity of their intelligence information, al-Fahal did not give up his fight to find the insurgents.
Orozco initially met al-Fahal during a meeting to discuss what training capabilities the explosives hazard team could provide the ISF. Asking al-Fahal for one IP to train in counter-improvised explosive device training, al-Fahal surprised him by providing two. His willingness to work with the U.S. forces was a testament to his commitment to getting the bad guys.
"He had a high level of trust for the U.S. forces and was committed to eradicating terrorism in his province," said Orozco. "With his assassination, the Iraqis lost an effective leader. His influence in the police department and Salah ad-Din province will be missed."
| Date Taken: | 12.25.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 12.28.2009 09:04 |
| Story ID: | 43199 |
| Location: | MOSUL, IQ |
| Web Views: | 331 |
| Downloads: | 233 |
This work, Assassinated Iraqi Policeman remembered for resolve, by SSG Melanie Trollinger, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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