Iraq News

At Winds of Change, there is a wrap up of news over the last week from Iraq. It's not all roses. It's a broad spectrum of good and bad. It's a little slice of real. (HT: Winds of War)

From this article, you can link to Bill Roggio, whom I a have blogged about before. He is reporting on patrol with the Iraqi Army:

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Lt Cortez, Cpl Curcell, Amir and I joined 14 jundis from 3 Company for today's morning patrol in southwestern Fallujah. The patrol kicked off after a 7:30 briefing, and started through the tall reeds, date palm groves and small farms running along the banks of the Euphrates. Insurgents have planted bombs along the path in the past, we walked by the location where one was detonated just last week. Also, in the past sniper fire has been encountered from the east. There were no such problems today.

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The patrol was largely uneventful from the jundi's perspective. Several Fallujans called the lieutenant over to provide information. 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.

But Fallujah wasn't quiet during the patrol...