Bill Roggio is embedded in Iraq at the moment with a Marine Transition Team inside Fallujah as the city transitions from the US Military to the Iraqi military:
In southwestern Fallujah, 3 Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division (3-2-1) owns the battlespace of a majority of the Resafa neighborhood. Resafa was one of the last bastions of al-Qaeda during the 2004 assault on the city.
[…]I embedded with 3 Company and the Marine Military Transition Team at the ROC. During the embed, there were three Marines and an interpreter: Lieutenant Alan Cortez, Lance Corporals Danny Curcell and James Cvec, and Amir, the interpreter, who was a Sergeant Major in the old Iraqi Army.
The Military Transition Team for 3 Company, as well as the rest of 3rd Battalion, have truly moved into an advisory role. “They advise, assist and mentor the Iraqi Army, and what they do with this is up to them,” said Major David McCombs, the executive officer of MTT for 3rd Battalion. The other two MTTs for 1 and 2 Companies have the same role as 3 Company’s MTT.
Jundis halt at an intersection. Click image to view.
The Iraqi soldiers, or jundi, in southwestern Fallujah run multiple patrols on their own; the Marines do not accompany the jundi every time they leave the wire. They provide for their own food, ammunition, “3 Company gathers their intelligence, plan and execute their own operations,” said Lt. Cortez, the lead adviser at The ROC.
These soldiers are volunteers, and are highly motivated to kill “Ali Baba” – the name they give the insurgents. There are major shortcomings with the Iraqi Army in Fallujah: logistics, pay and the lack of heavy weapons hold the jundi back from being fully independent (this will be covered in more depth along with the police in future posts on the MTTs/PTTs). But a fighting spirit is not one of these shortcomings.
[…]The Iraqi soldier’s ability to develop local intelligence networks, understand the language and culture and know the lay of the land far outweighs any tactical deficiencies they may have. “They can tell who’s not from the area – who’s from Mosul, or Tikrit or Ramadi – just by their accent, and they can tell when someone’s lying,” said Cpl Burcell.
He has some great photos on the post also:
Slowly but surely the Iraqi army is getting trained up and taking the fight to "Ali Baba"….that is if the blowhards on the left don’t force us to cut and run like cowards.
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In the past two days there have been more of these vague “bodies found in Baghdad” reports. One today:
“Late in the day, police said they had found 44 bodies across the capital, some of them handcuffed, blindfolded and showing signs of torture – often the hallmarks of reprisal killings by Shiite Muslim and Sunni Arab death squads.”
No specific source identified. And another on Saturday:
“Police also found the bodies of 53 men who had been bound and blindfolded before they were shot to death in Baghdad — apparently the latest victims of sectarian death squads.”
Sounds to me like someone should check out the handcuff store in Baghdad and see who has been buying. They must be going through a thousand sets a month at the rate of the news reporting.