U.S. Troops Encouraged By Iraqi Soldier Performance
Pir Ahmad, Iraq
Coalition and Iraqi Soldiers moved noiselessly under a black and moonless sky recently as they performed a night mission together.
Looking for insurgents, a platoon from Troop C, First Squad, and 71st Cavalry Regiment moved down different crooked and twisted gullies with Iraqi Troops, working together to set up an ambush site near a gravel river bottom.
Located just outside the village of Pir Ahmad, the squad waited with their Iraqi counterparts for daybreak, which when it came was like a cold orange ray on the horizon. The river they waded on the trek was icy and knee deep.
Armed with local information provided from citizens and Intelligence reports, the mission was to arrest or capture four insurgency cell members. The goal was to capture if possible but to kill or eliminate the cell if no capture was possible.
It is believed that members of the cell were responsible for a bomb that killed two U.S. soldiers last month.
After setting up the ambush, our troops settled in to wait. “It is important and key to let them know we are coming, to flush them out, “stated Captain Michael Groom. The call was made, and a helicopter came up over the village, but it remained strangely quiet. No insurgents, no fleeing terrorists. It is likely that somehow the enemy had been tipped off.
“Despite not catching the bad guys it was an excellent operation,†said Captain Groom. “It is wonderful to see the Iraqi Troops working for their own freedom like this,†said Groom.
