In Country With Our Troops

Army 1st Lt. Samuel Colby, the leader of Assault & Obstacle Platoon, A Company, 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, departs a deserted compound he checked for explosives and enemy activity.
The patrolling Soldiers look for anything out of the ordinary. He said if there are usually a lot of people somewhere like a bazaar and no one’s around, that can be a warning sign.

“You’re looking for antennas, wires or anything that’s out of place,” said Army Spc. Nicholaus Connole, a San Antonio, Texas, native serving as a medic with the platoon.

Connole typically moves on foot with the clearance team in order to remain nearby in the event of traumas, heat casualties or emergencies. “Terrorists, he said, sometimes disguise explosive devices within bushes, trees, plastic bags, soft ground, rocks, bottles, boxes and even soda cans.”

According to key platoon leaders, enemy IED placement usually follows certain patters.

“Historically, when they put an IED in a certain place, they’re likely to put another one there,” said Army Staff Sgt. Roman Espinoza, the organization’s platoon sergeant, pointing to the Pech River Road as one example of a heavily mined route.

“The ground is so hard that it takes a lot of work to prepare it for an IED,” explained the Watertown, N.Y., resident

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“Once the ground is softened up, they’ll take advantage of the loose ground to plant another one. Most times, they’ll put them in a place like a dip in the road where the ground if soft. The bad thing about an IED is you usually don’t find it until it finds you.”

IA Soldiers prevent attack, detain 27 suspects

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, prevented a large-scale sectarian attack in the Obiedi Region south of Baghdad Saturday after receiving reports that local residents had been driven out of their homes.
Soldiers from 2nd Bde. linked up with soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 8th IAD, and conducted a cordon and search of the eastern section of the Obiedi Region.
Eight suspects were detained for questioning.
In a separate incident, soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, and 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, detained a terrorist cell leader and 18 other suspects during a combined cordon and search west of Baghdad at approximately 8 a.m. Monday.
As of Sunday, Iraqi Security Forces and MND-B Soldiers have cleared approximately 95,000 buildings, 80 mosques and 60 muhallas, detained more than 125 terrorist suspects, seized more than 1,700 weapons, registered more than 750 weapons and found 35 weapons caches in support of Operation Together Forward. The combined forces have also removed more than 195,841 cubic meters of trash from the streets of Baghdad.

A U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle aircraft, top, from the 12th Fighter Squadron, Elmendorf Air Force Base, intercepts a Russian Tu-95 Bear bomber Sept. 28, 2006, during a Russian military exercise near the western coast of Alaska. The North American Aerospace Defense Command launched three pairs of fighters to detect, intercept, and identify the aircraft during a planned response to the exercise. DoD photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force. (Released)

U.S. Army Soldiers from 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment catalog contraband items during a search and cordon mission in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 1, 2006. DoD photo by Master Sgt. Mike Buytas, U.S. Air Force. (Released)