Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Mideast Stars and Stripes
October 24, 2008
Unit keeping eye on crucial Haditha Dam
By Jimmy Norris, Stars and Stripes
HADITHA, Iraq — The Small Unit Riverine Craft pulls alongside a tiny fishing boat. Well-maintained and bristling with weapons, it makes the raggedy canoe look like a cheap toy. Fishermen lift up their shirts and pat themselves down to show they have no weapons before reaching for their identification and handing it to the Iraqi police who patrol Lake Qadisiyah alongside the Navy’s Riverine Squadron 3.
They chat with the police for a few minutes before the SURC pushes off to continue on its patrol. It’s those little chats, say members of the U.S. unit RIVRON 3, which have led to caches of explosives, weapons and insurgents.
And as Iraqis prepare to take over from U.S. forces in the area, they’re doing most of the talking.
"It’s good to have the Iraqi police out here," said Chief Petty Officer Robert Noe, one of two Riverine sailors who developed a training program for Iraqi river police. "A lot of them are from here so they know the locals. They know who belongs here and who doesn’t."
Training for the Iraqis began in early June. Since then, Noe said, 63 Iraqi police have graduated from a four-week course that taught them basic naval skills such as boat handling, navigation and knot tying.
Maj. Hamad Kazal Husayn, chief of the Iraqi River Police, said there are currently 45 dedicated river police, though he expects to have 200 within the next year.
So far the river police have conducted two solo patrols, using borrowed Zodiac inflatable boats, on Lake Qadisiyah, a man-made lake adjacent to Haditha Dam. The Iraqis still don’t have their own craft, but Husayn expects 25-foot, up-armored "Jon Boats" as soon as his government finishes negotiations with manufacturers.
Husayn said his people are eager to do the job, and ready to start right now.
"We’re very anxious to take over," he said.
The job they’re slated to take over is a crucial one — the dam supplies power to about one-third of the country, including western Baghdad, Fallujah and Ramadi. The river is home to numerous farming and fishing communities, and their camps dot the shores and sand bars of the lake.
Damage to the dam would have "catastrophic" results for the country.
Because of this, Riverines enforce a 2,000-meter buffer zone in the water around the dam.
In recent months the zone has been harder to enforce as receding water levels caused by a five-year drought and dams in Syria and Turkey cause fishermen to chance going into the deeper waters closer to the dam, said RIVRON 3 Detachment 2 officer in charge Lt. j.g. Daniel Harkins.
Harkins said for repeat offenders, his sailors have had to cut nets and confiscate boats.
"We try to be as liberal as we can, but we still have to enforce the rules," said Harkins.
Also a security concern is the use of waterways as smuggling and escape routes for insurgents. RIVRON 3 sailors have turned up two caches of small arms and one cache of bomb-making materials during their six months on the dam. They’ve also detained three suspected insurgents, one of whom allegedly placed bombs along the routes leading to the dam for months.
At the height of fighting in the area, when Marines still had responsibility for the rivers, insurgents frequently tried to use the waterways to escape after executing attacks.
Things around the dam have quieted quite a bit since then, thanks largely to the "tribal awakening" that had sheiks calling for an end to local support of the insurgency, said Senior Chief Brian Korrigan.
With violence cooling down in western Anbar, the Iraqis believe they are ready to take the lead in security operations at the dam, and to maintain relations with local fishermen.
"We’re going to follow up with what coalition forces have been doing," said Husayn. "We’re going to take care of security first and if we serve the community, they’ll cooperate with us."
October 24, 2008
Unit keeping eye on crucial Haditha Dam
By Jimmy Norris, Stars and Stripes
HADITHA, Iraq — The Small Unit Riverine Craft pulls alongside a tiny fishing boat. Well-maintained and bristling with weapons, it makes the raggedy canoe look like a cheap toy. Fishermen lift up their shirts and pat themselves down to show they have no weapons before reaching for their identification and handing it to the Iraqi police who patrol Lake Qadisiyah alongside the Navy’s Riverine Squadron 3.
They chat with the police for a few minutes before the SURC pushes off to continue on its patrol. It’s those little chats, say members of the U.S. unit RIVRON 3, which have led to caches of explosives, weapons and insurgents.
And as Iraqis prepare to take over from U.S. forces in the area, they’re doing most of the talking.
"It’s good to have the Iraqi police out here," said Chief Petty Officer Robert Noe, one of two Riverine sailors who developed a training program for Iraqi river police. "A lot of them are from here so they know the locals. They know who belongs here and who doesn’t."
Training for the Iraqis began in early June. Since then, Noe said, 63 Iraqi police have graduated from a four-week course that taught them basic naval skills such as boat handling, navigation and knot tying.
Maj. Hamad Kazal Husayn, chief of the Iraqi River Police, said there are currently 45 dedicated river police, though he expects to have 200 within the next year.
So far the river police have conducted two solo patrols, using borrowed Zodiac inflatable boats, on Lake Qadisiyah, a man-made lake adjacent to Haditha Dam. The Iraqis still don’t have their own craft, but Husayn expects 25-foot, up-armored "Jon Boats" as soon as his government finishes negotiations with manufacturers.
Husayn said his people are eager to do the job, and ready to start right now.
"We’re very anxious to take over," he said.
The job they’re slated to take over is a crucial one — the dam supplies power to about one-third of the country, including western Baghdad, Fallujah and Ramadi. The river is home to numerous farming and fishing communities, and their camps dot the shores and sand bars of the lake.
Damage to the dam would have "catastrophic" results for the country.
Because of this, Riverines enforce a 2,000-meter buffer zone in the water around the dam.
In recent months the zone has been harder to enforce as receding water levels caused by a five-year drought and dams in Syria and Turkey cause fishermen to chance going into the deeper waters closer to the dam, said RIVRON 3 Detachment 2 officer in charge Lt. j.g. Daniel Harkins.
Harkins said for repeat offenders, his sailors have had to cut nets and confiscate boats.
"We try to be as liberal as we can, but we still have to enforce the rules," said Harkins.
Also a security concern is the use of waterways as smuggling and escape routes for insurgents. RIVRON 3 sailors have turned up two caches of small arms and one cache of bomb-making materials during their six months on the dam. They’ve also detained three suspected insurgents, one of whom allegedly placed bombs along the routes leading to the dam for months.
At the height of fighting in the area, when Marines still had responsibility for the rivers, insurgents frequently tried to use the waterways to escape after executing attacks.
Things around the dam have quieted quite a bit since then, thanks largely to the "tribal awakening" that had sheiks calling for an end to local support of the insurgency, said Senior Chief Brian Korrigan.
With violence cooling down in western Anbar, the Iraqis believe they are ready to take the lead in security operations at the dam, and to maintain relations with local fishermen.
"We’re going to follow up with what coalition forces have been doing," said Husayn. "We’re going to take care of security first and if we serve the community, they’ll cooperate with us."