A young Iraqi soldier, his face a mask of pain, rides away from the aid station at Forward Operating Base MacKenzie in the back of an 203rd Iraqi National Guard Brigade truck with the bagged body of one of his comrades. The ING soldier died in an attack on a joint Iraqi-American patrol that also injured four U.S. soldiers. (Steve Liewer / S&S)
FORWARD OPERATING BASE MACKENZIE, Iraq — After a quiet early October, Task Force Danger’s sector of Iraq is living up to its name.
During the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Wednesday, the zone — a West Virginia-sized area north and east of Baghdad that stretches from Kirkuk south to Balad, and east to the Iranian border — recorded 48 attacks from roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. One 1st ID soldier was killed when his convoy struck a roadside bomb near Balad.
That was the most attacks in a single day since the 1st Infantry Division took control of the zones from the 4th Infantry Division in March. Attacks in the Danger zone have averaged about 100 per week, according to statistics compiled by the 1st ID’s intelligence section.
“It’s been an interesting day across Danger,” said Lt. Col. Jim Chevallier, commander of the 1st ID’s 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, at his nightly staff meeting Wednesday.
Eight of the attacks took place in the 1-4 Cavalry’s Delaware-sized sector northeast of Samarra, said Capt. Scott Synowiez, 30, of Pinehurst, N.C., the unit’s intelligence officer. That compares with an average of five to six per day before the late-September sweep to clear terrorists from Samarra, and fewer than three per day since.
Two nearly simultaneous attacks just after noon Tuesday on a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol and on a traffic-control checkpoint in the restive city of Ad Duluiyah killed one Iraqi soldier and injured five Americans from two engineer units. A rocket-propelled grenade attack on a checkpoint at 5:24 p.m. injured three 1-4 Cavalry soldiers.
Only one of the wounded — a soldier with a broken leg — was hurt badly enough to be evacuated to Germany, Synowiez said.
On Wednesday a powerful 107 mm rocket struck inside FOB MacKenzie, the second one to hit the camp in a week. Neither caused injury, but both were close enough to the command post that soldiers outdoors were told to take cover.
The upswing in attacks is not unexpected, Synowiez said. This week is the last and most religiously significant week of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Monday was the “Day of Power,” following which Muslims believe prayers — or, to some extremists, acts of martyrdom — are more powerful.
“Everything you do is amplified,” Synowiez said.
The attack on Fallujah, about 50 miles southwest of MacKenzie, also has created an expected ripple effect as insurgents battle the U.S.-Iraqi assault there. During last spring’s unsuccessful assault on the rebel stronghold, Synowiez said, attacks in the Danger zone spiked upward.
A third factor is the upcoming elections, for which candidate and voter registration recently began. Coalition leaders assume insurgents will try to disrupt them and are keeping most 1st ID and 1st Cavalry Division troops in Iraq through January as a precaution.
Given the convergence of circumstances, Synowiez said, this Ramadan still has been relatively peaceful. Daily attacks remain below levels of a year ago, and deaths across the country are slightly below last year’s for the same holiday month.
“It’s been quieter than we expected, until the last couple of days,” Synowiez said. “Once Ramadan ends, I see it getting a bit calmer.”
The violence is nowhere near the levels to the south and west. Twenty-seven of 32 U.S. combat deaths reported during November have been in Baghdad, Fallujah or the Marine-patrolled Al Anbar and Babil provinces south and west of there.
