http://www.maplandia.com/iraq/diyala/balad-ruz/
A good link may be better than the one below.
No Revisionist History Here.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
I guess once again Baldruz is still not took, even in 2009!
You know these guys were bored to death this place had a whole Iraqi Army Division operational by 2007. The town is probably looking great by now though it was booming before we left it in 2005, lots of construction and people were out on the stoop at night, traffic etc. Dee-ja-jay for everyone!
Area swept of al-Qaida in grueling battle
Ben Bloker / S&S
Soldiers from 1st Platoon, Company A, Task Force 3-66 Armor and the Iraqi army wait through gusting winds before heading out on patrol in the village of Tahweela. The Iraqi army, supported by soldiers from Company A, kicked off Operation Dark Wolf Pursuit One to execute the “clear, hold and build” strategy in the southern Balad Ruz District of Iraq’s Diyala province. 
Ben Bloker / S&S
Pfc. Marc Capo, with 1st Platoon, Company A, Task Force 3-66 Armor, provides watch as Iraqi army soldiers raid a house in Tahweela. The Iraqi army was searching for a “high-value target” but came up short.
Ben Bloker / S&S
First Lt. Javier Avila, 3rd Platoon leader for Company A, Task Force 3-66 Armor, and Lt. Zafer from the Iraqi army are reflected in the glasses of Iraqi army Pvt. Raad Gabar as they coordinated a patrol in February in the village of Tahweela.
Ben Bloker / S&S
Iraqi children smile and giggle as soldiers from 1st Platoon, Company A, Task Force 3-66 Armor and the Iraqi army pass by during a joint patrol in February in Tahweela.
Ben Bloker / S&S
Sgt. Joseph Prince, from 3rd Platoon, Company A, Task Force 3-66 Armor, pulls security while Iraqi army soldiers search a house during a patrol in February in Tahweela.
Related stories:
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Members of Task Force 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment found themselves in a hard-fought battle against dug-in insurgents after the battalion split from the rest of the 172nd Infantry Brigade to fight in Diyala province, Iraq.
Lt. Col. Lou Rago, the 3-66 commander, said his men were assigned to forward operating bases Hammer and Caldwell and fell under 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division during the yearlong deployment to Diyala.
“Our mission was to clear an area in South Balad Ruz that had been an al-Qaida safe haven for about six years,” he said.
Since the U.S. invasion in 2003, American coalition forces had operated in the area for only a few weeks at a time. Al-Qaida fighters had run off Shiite farmers, who once made up half of the population, and destroyed irrigation systems to stop the farmers from coming back. The insurgents fortified villages with double- and triple-stacked anti-tank mines and resisted strongly from late January until May, Rago said.
“We were there to clean that area up once and for all,” he said. “We were probably the last unit to do a battalion-sized fight in Iraq. We were doing combat operations akin to what was seen in 2004 using Bradleys and tanks, firing artillery and using close air support to get after al-Qaida, who were in bunker complexes.”
Equipment such as heavily armored Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles allowed engineers to break through insurgents’ defenses and the infantry to spot the enemy and kill him with close air support, Rago said.
“We killed at least 60 al-Qaida in the area and effectively cleared South Balad Ruz,” he said.
The victory came at a cost. On April 5, Spc. Israel Candelaria Mejias, 28, of San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, was killed when he stepped on the pressure plate of a homemade explosive booby trap in a house. Several other members of the unit were injured by roadside bombs, Rago said.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Rogers, 29, of Charlotte, N.C., a squad leader with 3-66 in Iraq, found himself in the thick of the fight during a foot patrol outside Wawhilla patrol base in April.
“About 500 meters down the road, an Iraqi army Humvee got hit with an anti-tank mine,” Rogers said. “The vehicle was totally destroyed, but we medevaced the Iraqi soldiers from the Humvee with minor cuts and a broken shin.”
Rogers said his unit was hit by several anti-tank mines but armored vehicles protected soldiers from injury, except for concussions.
In March, 3-66 broke the back of al-Qaida in Balad Ruz during a 12-hour engagement in which 16 to 20 insurgents were killed after an unmanned aerial vehicle spotted them attempting to load ammunition from a bunker into a truck, Rago said.
“We were able to engage them with close air support and helicopters and then go in and clear with the infantry,” he said. “Based on the exploitation of the scene, we knew we had really taken out the entire
middle management and leadership of the operational cells in South Balad Ruz. From that point on, all our engagements were with al-Qaida ex-filtrating the area. We had no IED (improvised explosive device) emplacements or snipers after that.”
The low point of the deployment came May 11 when two 3-66 soldiers — Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, 25, and Pfc. Michael Yates Jr., 19 — were shot dead, allegedly by another U.S. soldier, during a visit to a combat stress clinic at Camp Liberty in Baghdad.
“Whenever we have soldiers injured or killed in action, that is obviously a bad day and affects the organization, but guys accept that a lot more because that is one of the unfortunate consequences of the job we have,” Rago said. “Losing Bueno and Yates at the mental health clinic was probably the worst day we had. It was just not what you expect. It took everybody from me down to the junior privates by surprise.”
From May, the task force focused on the same things that most other units were doing in Iraq this year — making sure Iraqis in their area of operations received essential services and supporting local government, he said.
Capt. Dritan Xhakolli, 29, of Queens, N.Y., and a platoon leader with 3-66 in Iraq, said he was impressed by the progress of Iraqi security forces during the mission. That was hammered home during a mission to clear the town of Shannanah alongside an Iraqi company, he said.
“We didn’t find anything, but they (the Iraqis) searched every house,” Xhakolli said. “It was good seeing them in action, doing what they were supposed to do, not us telling them what to do.”
By the end of the deployment, 3-66 had conducted every aspect of the Army’s counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine, Rago said.
“We did COIN doctrine from soup to nuts, starting with the clear (clearing the enemy from the area), positioning the Iraqis to properly hold villages in that area and prevent re-entry of al-Qaida, and we transitioned to assisting local government with provision of essential services,” he said.
I thought NC Guard took it in 2004, guess not, we thought we did in 2005 we did have elections! One tough town for sure seven years to take it.
The area of operations is 1500 plus square miles, so I assume that this refers to "down south" where Route Cowboy peters out into the badlands. Past Turki Village et al., Turki Village is on the road a mile or so past CP12, the farm there at the road junction has some nice turkeys, wild ones. The main paved road runs west towards Baquba and 3rd ID also sent forays down into this area, I know we led one of their convoys out of the AO and it had at least 30 vehicles in it. (FOB Warhorse and Scunion) It was and probably still is a no mans land of sorts because of the way the unit boundaries come together and the lack of a population center, the canal runs out here also, no water no large village. We took the tanks and M113A3s down one time as a company + sized unit but it was a bust, breakdowns, crappy weather, no concerted searches, nasty cold and rainy, mud galore. Was actually the worst weather day of the year.
By Sgt. Armando Monroig
5th Mobile Public Affairs
By Sgt. Armando Monroig
5th Mobile Public Affairs
BALAD RUZ, Iraq, Jan. 31, 2007 — The U.S. Army concluded a massive, nine-day assault Jan. 13, centered on a series of small villages in the Diyala province that for the past 18 months had been used as a safe haven for insurgents.
During the operation, soldiers from the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment Reconnaissance, 82nd Airborne Division, killed more than 100 insurgents and detained 54 suspected of involvement with terrorism activities in the area, which is located just south of Balad Ruz.
The unit, located at Forward Operating Base Caldwell, also reported capturing six unnamed leaders of an underground organization thought to have ties to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups hiding in the villages of Turki, Hamoud, and 30 Tamuz.
In outlying palm groves and canals, soldiers found weapons caches containing more than 1,100 Katushya rockets, 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, 500 mortars and a variety of bomb-making materials.
Sunni insurgents defended the area with small arms fire, anti-tank mines and improvised explosive devices.
“The effects will be felt just outside this area in places like Baghdad, Baqubah and further out to the west,” said Capt. Stephen Dobbins, the commander of Troop B.
Leaders of the 5-73rd Cav. suspected that insurgents were using the area as a training ground for conducting terrorist activities elsewhere. The villages are an hour’s drive from Baghdad.
Last month, the unit raided the area after finding a large weapons cache there. More than 100 insurgents and two U.S. soldiers were killed in the fighting.
This last assault was bolstered by the Iraqi Army and U.S. Army units from forward operating bases in Muqdadiyah and Baqubah. Air Force B-1 bombers and F-16 fighter-bombers dropped bombs on nearby canals and tunnel systems to destroy insurgent defenses before soldiers moved in to secure the area.
Soldiers battled ankle-deep mud as they cleared canals and villages.
The 5-73rd Cav., along with the Iraqi army, is now in the process of setting up a combat outpost in Turki from which to control the area.
“It will be a place where Coalition Forces and the Iraqi army can work jointly to develop intelligence, plan rehearsals, and execute missions out here,” said Dobbins.
The outpost will also be used to facilitate infrastructure improvement projects and strengthen the area’s education system.
“With the outpost, the Iraqi security forces can provide a safe and secure environment for those in the area who want a better opportunity for their families,” said Lt. Col. Andrew Poppas, the commander of the 5-73rd Cav.
Poppas said that his unit has already begun to assist with the repatriation of village residents driven out by a mostly Sunni insurgency.
“The end state is to create a safe and secure region with a continuous Iraqi Security Forces presence,” said Poppas.
“That way, we deny the enemy a safe haven in which they can conduct illegal acts with impunity,” he said. “You can’t let an environment of extremism remain in a free and safe society.”
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