ISF Shows Mettle Under Fire, U.S. Army Says

[Rob Thornton]

There are two things that these events make perfectly clear: The ISF and local leaders are committed to this city and the welfare of the people, and second, the terrorists are cowards."

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon

Here is a sucess story. The IA in Mosul are (and have been) hooking and jabbing for awhile now to good effect. The IP are being brought up to speed. Mosul is not mostly Kurd - its mostly Arab, and so are the ISF (on the East side the IA is probably 70% Arab, and the IP probably 90%; on the West side the IA is mostly Kurd - probably a reverse, but the IP are still mostly Arab).

These guys know what its like to hunt the enemy down and kill them, and they are doing it with increasingly less CF support. In fact, their own independant operations routinely catch and kill major bad guys. While I may be a bit biased, I'm very proud of these guys, they have a desire to not only improve, but to win. They are increasingly well led, and have proven time and again they are willing to ante up with the best of them. They also show an awareness for the people they are fighing for and the terrorism they are fighting against, given time I believe we'll hear about more success stories outside of Mosul.

Whole Article here

or paste this into your browser:

http://www.defendamerica.mil/article...051807tj2.html

I offer a hat tip to 2nd IA Division, the Mosul IP, and COL Twitty's 4th BCT

[sullygoarmy]

Rob,
These are the same IA guys the the 172d Stryker BDE from Alaska had good results with. I also know that some 1 CD guys right now are enjoying the support and combat prowess of the two IA Divisions up in that AO. Personally, I'm not surprised. Although not at the tactical level of a US platoon, most IA platoons will fight and will win when attacked or conducting operations against insurgents. The issues really start at the higher levels and with the Iraqi Police.

Always nice to see a good news story in the press, especially about our IA brothers.