B36 News - 18 July 2006

Here's today's good news from Iraq.

Marines, ISF Build & Save Girls School
This is the kind of people we're fighting. An all girls school was one week from being opened and these nut-jobs try to blow it up. Thanks to the good guys the bomb was defused and there's now a full-time security force protecting the school.

"I want to thank the Coalition forces on behalf of all of the people of Karabilah for finishing the school very fast and for supporting the construction of a fine place," said Mohammed Ahmed Selah, mayor of Karabilah.

The mayor and the Marines agree that the school's neighborhood is relatively safe, although there is still the threat of IEDs, according to Bernier.

"The bomb was a last ditch effort by insurgents to destroy the progress we've made in this area," said Bernier.
Since arriving here four months ago, the Marines have seen a decrease in enemy activity. The Marines have also introduced the city to their new police force and have begun conducting security operations alongside policemen.
The Marines say local Iraqi security forces have made significant progress in the past few months by providing security and conducting several independent operations.

"We are capturing more of the bad guys with a higher level of expertise in IED-making and that leaves a lot of insurgents with minimal experience in making the bombs," said Bernier. "One guy blew himself up last week trying to plant an IED."

CF, ISF Kill 1, Capture 2, Preserve Mosque
This story is a round-up of several seperate operations over the past few days in which two terrorist leaders were captured and one was killed. One of the captured leaders was located at a Mosque in Baghdad and dispite a firefight, the Mosque was not damaged. We're winning and doing it kindly and gently.

ISF Checkpoint Captures Insurgent Leader
I've heard some complaints that checkpoints don't work. Here's an example of how ISF work with Iraqi civilians to catch bad guys. Oh yeah, there were no shots fired. Sounds an awful lot like a regular police action doesn't it?

Kidnapping Prevented, Cabbie Defuses IED
In another checkpoint success story, Iraqi Army troops prevented terrorists from kidnapping civilians from a marketplace near Baghdad. Seperately, two bad guys forgot their IED in a taxi after getting to their stop. Upon finding the bomb in the backseat of his cab, the driver cut the wires and called the Iraqi Army.