GOOD NEWS FROM IRAQ

Local residents lead Soldiers to huge weapons cache
Saturday, 28 July 2007
2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. (LI) PAO
Multi-National Division - Center

PATROL BASE INCHON — The rural areas south of Baghdad have long been a trouble spot for Coalition Forces. The fertile land was given by Saddam Hussein to Baath Party members and close friends, and the ties made it a hotbed of terrorism.

Increasingly, however, residents are combating terror in their areas.

On July 23, a local Iraqi man came to Patrol Base Inchon, near the Euphrates River, staffed by Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., and elements of the 4th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division. He told troops that several other residents had chased a group of anti-Iraqi forces away from a weapons cache. He asked Soldiers to remove the weapons. (Read more)

Improved Ninewah security may mean fewer U.S. troops in future
Saturday, 28 July 2007

BAGHDAD — Insurgent attacks in Iraq’s Ninewah province have dropped significantly, and if the trend continues, fewer U.S. troops will be needed in the region, an Army commander in the area said Friday.

A sign of the improved security situation in the province is the fact that the province - which includes Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city - will transfer to Iraqi provincial control sometime next month, said Army Col. Stephen Twitty, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 4th Brigade, during a briefing with Pentagon reporters via telephone.

The Ninewah provincial government has made great strides and can stand on its own with minimal help, Twitty said. “We have a very mature provincial government here,” he said.
The Coalition provincial reconstruction team in Mosul and the brigade staff will continue to coach and mentor the provincial government. “In nine months I have seen this government mature, so they will be able to operate pretty much independently and run the provincial government pretty much independently,” Twitty said.

On the security side, the two Iraqi divisions in the province are already under the command of Iraqi Ground Forces Command. “We still continue to see a need for the (provincial reconstruction team) to be here and will probably see a need for some type of Coalition forces up here,” Twitty said.
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