“This was a totally combined operation,” said Maj. Jesse Pearson, 23rd Infantry Regiment. “They were extremely successful in helping us capture enemy personnel, and question them for intelligence.” “We are capitalizing on successes of Operation Together Forward by denying terrorists the means to hide weapons,” added Capt. Miller, also from the 23rd Inf. Regt.
“Our mission today was to root out any weapons caches, find any foreign fighters and (eventually) bring some peace and normalcy to the area,” said Capt. Duane Waits, a platoon leader.
The platoonÂ’s two-fold mission also involved collecting information from residents about trouble in the neighborhood, in addition to general information about the local populace.
“We have been going more or less house to house, getting a census of the community to see who lives where, what’s going on and what problems they have been having in the neighborhoods,” said Spc. Phillip Page, 14th Cavalry Regiment.
“For example, we are trying to gain information about terrorists groups in the area and how they are affecting the populace, and as a result, how the populace feels about Coalition forces coming into this neighborhood,” said Page. “We want the local residents to feel comfortable enough to tell us what’s going on and to lead us in the right direction to track down these terrorists.”
In the Adhamiyah neighborhood – where agriculturally-minded residents grow everything from date palm trees to garden vegetables - the neighbors appear pleased with the progress they’ve witnessed.
“Most of the residents we have spoken with are farmers,” said Page. “They are good people who have been living in the area for quite a while and just trying to make a living for themselves.” Until recently, violence had touched even the most innocuous of sites. During their patrols, U.S. and Iraqi Soldiers came across a kindergarten school that had in recent weeks come under fire from terrorist mortars.
The terrorists were aiming at the Iraqi National Police station nearby, explained the head security guard for the kindergarten. “If (these patrols) happen more times, maybe the terrorists would leave.” The guard said he has lived in the neighborhood for seven years, and has watched the area change for the worse. Now he said he feels the security operations underway will be good for the neighborhood.
“Even my babies, they see Americans and Iraqi forces and they feel safe because they think this will give security to them,” said the guard.
“A lot of the residents I have spoken with said as soon as we rolled in, the terrorists, or whoever was taking over this area, rolled out,” added Page. “Violence has gone down and it seems pretty peaceful.”