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March 11, 2005

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By Charlie Coon
Stars and Stripes, Mideast Edition

BUHRIZ, Iraq - The mission starts with a bang.

A handful of artillery explosions crack through the pre-dawn sky, waking up the sleeping community. Fighter jets streak overhead, leaving a trail of sonic booms in their wake.

“Psychological warfare; it might make a guy think twice about picking up his AK-47,” said Capt. Ryan Howell of St. Louis, commander of Battery A, 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, part of the 42nd Infantry Division's Task Force Liberty.

Operation Rock Hammer has begun: Now 500 troops — 375 American and 125 Iraqi soldiers — will blitz through Buhriz to seize illegal weapons, explosives and insurgents; they're especially on the lookout for two men suspected of leading election day attacks against polling stations.

Buhriz's 60,000 residents live in a place that offers strange mixes of primitive living and technological wonders, often under the same roof. A house might not have flush toilets but it does have a satellite dish on its roof.

For soldiers with vehicles, Buhriz can be difficult to enter since there are only two ways in and out, a road on either side of town.

But insurgents who know the terrain have many places to hide in the maze of homes and shops. Escape routes run through the acres of surrounding palm and date groves and across the Diyala River.

“I'm pretty excited that we're actually going out and doing something,” said Spc. Robert Atchison of Gainesville, Fla. “We're going after the guys who are causing all the havoc.”

Special operation soldiers and a group of select Iraqis led the way into town, targeting seven sites — four residents and three shops — suspected of harboring the top suspects and their cohorts.

For their role, the soldiers of Battery A look for weapons caches and fleeing suspects on the scores of goat trails running like a maze through the woods.

“There's a whole network of trails back here, and they're all well-worn,” said Pfc. Keith Peacock of Las Vegas after one foray into the brush.

Searching the surrounding areas and city represents a gray area in the current state of security affairs, Howell said. It is too insecure for normal police activity (if a normal police force existed). But in trying to win the peace, rolling tanks through town isn't the answer.

“Clearing operations don't always yield a lot,” Howell said. “Sometimes you can make more enemies than you do friends. It also let's people in the neighborhood know — ‘don't harbor these guys.'

“The police couldn't do this back in the States, but until police stations here stop getting mortared … .”

Residents who can't fix anything damaged during a search, Howell said, can bring evidence of the damage along with three repair estimates to the Civil Military Operations Office in nearby Baqouba. If they were innocent of wrongdoing, the victims can be reimbursed cash for the damage.

For all the firepower, it turned out very little was needed. There were no casualties, Howell said, either military or civilian.

Of the 11 detainees, Howell said, six tested positive for traces of explosive compounds on their hands. Neither Saddam Septi nor Dawoud Karim Hanun were captured.

The four hot spots detected by the helicopter turned out to be nothing.

The final haul of weaponry was fairly modest. Several AK-47 automatic rifles with ammunition were found, as well as a homemade rocket launcher, two rocket-propelled grenades and some mortar rounds. Howell said that three improvised explosive devices were found and blown up.

That could be a good sign, he added, indicating that perhaps people there were buying into a future Iraq that was democratic and non-oppressive.

“Everybody was expecting a little more action, a little more hype,” Howell said. “Of course, we're not out of the woods yet. There could be some surprises on the way home.”

There weren't. There were just a few glares. Some kids waved to the passing troops. One person threw a rock that hit a passing Humvee. Most people just stood and watched.

The operation would be followed up in coming days with soldiers and interpreters explaining to residents of Buhriz the reason for Tuesday's actions.

“We'll tell them, ‘This is why we did this,'” Howell said.

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