Despite its remote location, security remains high at the new airport being built in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. The recent attack in nearby Irbil and the selection of Jalal Talabani as president of Iraq has many folks on extra alert, believing the city has become a terrorist target. (Kevin Dougherty / Stars and Stripes)
SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq — When Jalal Talabani became president of Iraq last month, residents of Sulaymaniyah danced in the streets and launched numerous celebratory shots into the sky with their AK-47s.
Then, U.S. observers said, reality of a different sort hit home.
Officials in Sulaymaniyah, the hub of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, increased security as a precaution against a possible terrorist attack. Even though the city had been spared the indiscriminate bloodshed common to other areas of Iraq, PUK officials were taking no chances, especially with Talabani holding such a high-profile post.
“They really haven’t had anything bad happen,” said 1st Sgt. Kevin Martinez, a Utah National Guardsman based in the area.
Today, security remains a concern, especially after last week’s terrorist attack in the nearby northern city of Irbil. The attack killed more than 60 people and injured scores more.
Capt. Darcy Burt, the guard commander, said intelligence analysts have suggested Sulaymaniyah is ripe “for a possible terrorist hit.”
“Tensions are high,” said Burt, leader of Battery B, 1st Battalion, 148th Field Artillery, 116th Brigade Combat Team, 42nd Infantry Division. “Security is tighter than at any time we’ve been here.”
Despite the undercurrent of concern, much of the unit expects to be redeployed to another location in the near future. Anxiety aside, the Army figures there are other locales with more pressing security needs. Further, there are about 30,000 peshmerga — Kurdish fighters whose name means “those who face death” — in Sulaymaniyah province and a populace who are as friendly as they are determined to keep the peace.
Still, an attack would make “common sense,” said Sonny Sebastian, a contractor working in the province for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Terrorists might figure “they got to make a mark in Sulaymaniyah.”
It’s something no one wants.
The decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the city of Sulaymaniyah, situated about 20 miles west of the Iraq-Iran border, is both political and pragmatic, Burt said.
It will “show the American population that, ‘Hey, we are giving this part of Iraq back to indigenous forces,’ ” Burt said.
Pragmatic, too, he added, because the regional security force is quite capable of protecting the area. Many of the men fought the government of Saddam Hussein for years and are battle-hardened.
“They are lucky up here,” Burt said, “because their prior training has given them structure.”
Refinement of those skills is what the unit — and its predecessors — have been providing to the 33rd Iraqi Army Brigade and the Department of Border Enforcement for the past couple of years.
While the Army’s presence in northeast Iraq — light to begin with when compared to other regions — is due to get smaller, it won’t entirely go away. Army officials plan to leave a team of advisers behind to help continue the mentoring of Iraqi soldiers. And if security conditions ever deteriorate, U.S. forces will be just over the horizon in Kirkuk.
“It’s totally different from anywhere else in Iraq,” Burt said. “This place is a model for what the rest of Iraq can become.”
Troy Billson, a DynaCorp contractor, echoed that sentiment when he compared northeast Iraq to the presumed safe haven in central Baghdad.
“This,” Billson said as he stood outside amid the lush countryside, “is the real Green Zone.”
