3 posts tagged “sahawah al-iraq”

We blogged some about the tribal awakening taking place in Anbar Province earlier in the week, and I wanted to share a short vignette about a practical outcome of said awakening.

I visited one of our training centers for the Provincial Security Forces, or PSF. What these are are non-traditional security forces composed of tribesmen from the greater Fallujah area. When I went, a new class composed mostly of Iraqis from the Albu Issa tribe, on the sweeping tract of land running from just west of Fallujah just on the other side of the Euphrates all the way south to Amiriyah. This is the third class held so far.

These guys are being trained to become a legitimate sort of police auxiliary force, tasked with defending their tribal areas, fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq and other terrorist groups. Once made official, the plan is to have them funded by the Ministry of the Interior for weapons and gear, as well as receiving a paycheck from the Iraqi federal government, according to Maj. Mark Clingan, the operations officer for 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. I interviewed Maj. Clingan today and he had quite a bit of interesting information to pass along, most of which will be in a future post.

However, there was something he said that was very revealing and I feel sheds quite a bit of light on exactly what is happening, and why it is significant:

There really is in Al Anbar Province a huge awakening. You could almost call it a revolution where the Iraqi people are tired of the empty promises and lies of (Al Qaeda) and want to take back their own neighborhoods. The (indigenous counterinsurgency forces) which are growing up from the roots is an indication of that. By taking the ICF and turning them into PSF, now we’ve equipped them, we’ve given them the training and now we’re also legitimizing them and making them more of the process, and the local and national government recognizes them. (This recognition) includes funding from (Iraqi Ministry of Interior) and paychecks for individuals. It also puts them on the road to potentially becoming full-fledged (Iraqi Police), and also it means that they are able to act within the authority of the Iraqi government and sanctioned by the Iraqi government.

Things just feel

different here now. The reporters with significant embed experience under their belt who fly in from different areas of the country remark consistently that the environment in Anbar is much different than elsewhere. No one is saying words like "victory" or "peace," but the words "significant hope" are on everyone's lips. With the sheiks coming to our aid to bring their cities and neighborhoods under control, the entire province is taking a step forward.

There is still significant work to be done, no doubt about that. Watch some of the cable news shows and read some of the mainstream papers. It would be difficult not to  find an article about Anbar that does not discuss  in depth precisely what is going on.

"Stay tuned" for more information forthwith on this topic.

Our correspondent with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Lance Cpl. Christopher Zahn, brings us a recap of the battalion's latest operation, Operation Riverwalk:

The tribal awakening in Al Anbar made an enormous impact on an operation by Marines and sailors from 3^rd Battalion, 6^th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, recently.

“We clearly see that the Iraqi citizens have grown tired of what the insurgency has to offer; they do not want any part of it,” said Brig. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus, ground forces commander for Multinational Force West, during a recent news conference.

This weariness aided the “Teufelhunden” Battalion, based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., when they swept the countryside around this town south of Fallujah May 4. Local residents turned out to point the Marines toward caches and alerted them to homemade bombs, called improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, during their patrols.

 “The Iraqi people are starting to realize that, unlike the Ottoman Empire or the British occupiers, the American military is not a military of occupation,” said Maj. Mark H. Clingan, 36, from Westminster, Md. “We are here to rid the country of the insurgency and allow the Iraqi’s their own self determination. That’s why the local nationals are now standing up to Al Qaeda and assisting Coalition and the (Iraqi Security Forces). This awakening is allowing us to focus our forces in areas where the enemy is seeking safe haven.”

This riverside area on a peninsula south of Fallujah has turned into base of operations for insurgent activity. Tight control over surrounding areas like Amiriyah to the east and Habbaniyah to the west have forced them into an ever-dwindling supply of terrain unoccupied by Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces.

The 72-hour operation, dubbed Operation Riverwalk, denied the enemy this terrain and disrupted his ability to plan and equip to target both the Coalition Forces and the Iraqi Security Forces in and around the city of Fallujah.

Read the rest of this story here.

And for those of you who have always wanted to know what a (relatively small) IED cache looks like:

Teflon Don over at Acute Politics has a good perspective on the impact the tribal awakening in Anbar Province can have and is having on counterinsurgency efforts here:

A nearby coalition unit reported hearing an explosion at 0444, and attempted to make comms with the overwatching unit. They were unable to do so, and a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle was dispatched to investigate. A Quick Reaction Force was sent to the scene when the UAV found two vehicles burning. QRF arrived at 0540 to find five dead and the other three missing.

No insurgent group has publicly claimed responsibility, and coalition forces are already scouring the area for the missing soldiers. The tribes of SAI (Sahawah al-Iraq, or "Iraqi Awakening"- formerly Anbar Awakening) have agreed to help in the search. If we find our missing boys, it will be a testament to the growing success in al-Anbar. The tribes have a native intel ability within their population that we simply cannot match. I hope it will help us bring them home. (permalink)

More on the tribal awakening here in a few minutes.