Cavalry Troops making progress in Diwaniyah with help of residents

Photo By Sgt. Robert Yde | Spc. Steven Reyes looks down into a hole while searching a rooftop in Diwaniyah, Iraq April 11. Reyes' unit, 1st Battalion, 14th Cavalry Regiment, attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, is supporting Operation Black Eagle in Diwaniyah after being relocated from Baghdad.  

DIWANIYAH, IRAQ

04.16.2007

Story by Sgt. Robert Yde 

2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs

By Sgt. Robert Yde
2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs

FORWARD OPERATING BASE ECHO, Iraq – After several days of continuous combat operations in Diwaniyah, Soldiers from Task Force 1st Battalion, 14th Cavalry, attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, are now focusing their efforts on locating specific targets and performing clearing operations in different areas of the city while forming working relationships with the local population.

Every day the Soldiers are in different neighborhoods searching for weapon caches and talking with the residents about the problems in the area.

"We just picked this up," Sgt. Michael Gibson, a native of Angles Camp, Calif. said explaining his troop's new mission. "We were doing continuous combat operations out here when we first got here."

Gibson and other Soldiers with Troop C focused their efforts in and around the city's market area during a multi-phased mission April 11.

The morning started off with one specific target, as members of the "Bandit Platoon" began the day in search of a suspected militia member who had been identified as a high value target.

"It was an intelligence-driven raid," acting platoon leader Sgt. 1st Class Rodney Bryant explained. "Initially, we were supposed to go to the house, and if he wasn't there, our instructions were to search the surrounding areas and try to find the target."

Unfortunately, after searching the target's house and neighboring houses, Bryant and his Soldiers were unable to locate him.

"We didn't find him and asked a lot of people in the area, but nobody had even heard of the name," Bryant said. "We searched the surrounding area and had no luck in finding him."

After completing this first phase of their operation, the Soldiers transitioned into a clearing operation of the city's market area, with the help of troops from the 8th Iraqi Army Division.

"We're not looking for anything specific; it's just a clearing [operation] for weapons contraband," Gibson said. "We're also trying to get our faces out there, hand out the tip-line cards and let people know we're here to help."

The Soldiers focused in on this area because it was one of the more active spots during the first few days of their operations in city.

"When we initially got into this city, we received a lot of contact from the south of the main street, which is Jumhori, and since we took a lot of contact from there, we decided to clear that area," explained Fort Worth, Texas native, Sgt. Michael Schmieder.

As the Soldiers went from building-to-building and house-to-house, they seemed to be genuinely welcomed by a majority of the locals.

After the Soldiers finished clearing one house, the owner shook each of their hands and welcomed them to Diwaniyah and told them he hoped they would be able to help improve the area.

Bryant said that reactions like this have been typical.

"These people are a little more open down here. Up there, they're afraid and intimidated," Bryant said comparing the people Diwaniyah to the people of his unit's old area of operations in Baghdad. "These people down here don't seem as intimidated, and if they know of some criminal activity or militia activity going on, they won't hesitate to share that information with coalition forces."

Soldiers handed out tip-line cards at each house so that people who wish to report anything anonymously could do so, and according to Gibson several of the tips that they have received from locals have paid off.

"We've been having a lot of cooperation," he said. "One of our other units actually found a cache where the people came up to them and told them that people had moved stuff out of a mosque and put it in the market. They found a lot of RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and a lot of EFPs (explosively-formed projectiles)."

On this day, however, not much was turned up, but according to Bryant that didn't mean that the mission wasn't a success.

"We cleared and disrupted any activity in the area pretty well today," Bryant said. "Our commander's overall intent is not to necessarily kill or capture always, but to disrupt enemy [activity] and even though we didn't find a whole lot of weapon caches, I think we were successful in accomplishing our goal."

Bryant said his platoon will continue to search and canvass the area over the next several days, and hopefully, with the continued cooperation from the locals, they will continue to be successful in their efforts to restore order to Diwaniyah.

"These people are actually happy we're here and taking care of the city," Gibson said. "These people we're saying they were scared to go out into the streets before we showed up. It's a good feeling knowing that we're helping them out."

• Date Taken: 04.16.2007
• Date Posted: 04.16.2007 17:02
• Story ID: 9954
• Location: DIWANIYAH, IQ