A soldier with Company A, 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment from the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division watches vehicles line up across the Jisr Diyala Bridge in southeast Baghdad at a traffic checkpoint Wednesday. (Vince Little / S&S)
A soldier with Company A, 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment from the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division watches vehicles line up across the Jisr Diyala Bridge in southeast Baghdad at a traffic checkpoint Wednesday. (Vince Little / S&S)
A U.S. soldier tells an Iraqi motorist that officials will search his vehicle at a traffic checkpoint Wednesday. (Vince Little / S&S)
An Iraqi policeman searches the back of a vehicle as soldiers secure the checkpoint at Jisr Diyala Bridge on Wednesday. (Vince Little / S&S)
Lucy, a mixed breed of Rottweiler and German shepherd, sniffs a vehicle for plastic explosives and detonating chord Wednesday. Her handler, Lorry Botha, is a U.S. contractor from South Africa who works for Canine Associates International. (Vince Little / S&S)
JISR DIYALA, Iraq — Iraqi police and 3rd Infantry Division soldiers at Forward Operating Base Loyalty clamped down the main road this week, hoping to seal off a terrorist concentration to the south and prevent insurgents from disrupting the two-day Transitional National Assembly meetings in Baghdad.
“Ask anyone and they’ll tell you, the bad guys are at Salman Pak,” said Army Capt. Todd Smith of Mobile, Ala., commander of the 2nd Brigade’s Company A, 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment, nicknamed the “Assassins.”
“This mission is specific toward the TNA, and keeping them from heading north into Baghdad,” he said.
The U.S. soldiers and local Iraqi police bolstered a traffic checkpoint on the south side of the Diyala River — which feeds into the Tigris to the west — and another about a 1½ miles away at the Jisr Diyala circle, a spot that’s become a point of contention for coalition forces, Smith said.
Army officials believe terrorist elements fled south to Salman Pak following last fall’s military sweep of Fallujah.
“It seems the enemy really focuses on that traffic circle,” Smith said. “They think if they can own it, it would be a symbol of their presence and influence in the area. We’ve made it a point to occupy that area quite a bit.”
The company secured the location three hours before the national assembly got under way and three hours after the sessions ended.
First Lt. Emory Hayes of Ellijay, Ga., the 1st Platoon leader, said his unit arrived on the circle at 4 a.m. both days. A relief platoon stuck around until about 8 p.m., but neither encountered any major contact.
“For the most part, when you present a force of more than just a patrol, those guys tend to scatter,” Hayes said. “They don’t mess with us.”
Lucy, a mixed breed of Rottweiler and German shepherd, took part in Wednesday’s traffic checkpoint at the Jisr Diyala Bridge. She sniffed vehicles for plastic explosives and detonating cord.
Her handler, Lorry Botha, a U.S. contractor from South Africa, said if the Iraqi police or U.S. soldiers think a car looks suspicious, they call on Lucy.
Nothing turned up during the two-day search.
Botha and Lucy live on Forward Operating Base Hope, but they’re used throughout the 2nd Brigade area, which also includes Loyalty and Rustamiyah.
Since arriving in Iraq about two months ago, Company A has engaged in several joint ventures with local police in southeast Baghdad, including dismounted patrols, intelligence-gathering and the checkpoints. The two sides are planning future raids, Smith said.
Last year, a Washington state National Guard unit monitoring the bridge’s checkpoint for the 1st Cavalry Division had a lengthy firefight against terrorist forces along the river. So far, the scene has been quiet for the 1st Battalion.
“We’ve had [a roadside bomb] go off on us. No one got hurt,” Smith said. “But any time we’ve responded to a situation, everybody leaves. No one’s really tried us yet.”
