As he climbs the stairs of a home in Balour, Iraq, Feb. 20, a Soldier from the 6th Squadron, 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment from Fort Hood, Texas, checks for insurgents or insurgent activities during a squadron-level operation in the area.


By Sgt. Armando Monroig
5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

MUQDADIYAH, Iraq – Soldiers with the 5th Iraqi Army Division detained seven suspected terrorists during a cordon-and-search mission in Balour, Iraq, Feb. 20, aimed at capturing insurgents hiding in the area.

Members of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, of Fort Hood, Texas, supported the mission in an area believed to be a safe haven where insurgents plan attacks on residents and coalition forces in nearby Muqdadiyah.

Coalition forces found a roadside bomb and detonated it, and took several AK-47s with ammunition from the scene of the squadron-sized mission.

Staff Sgt. James Davis, a mortar platoon sergeant assigned to 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, said most of the suspected insurgents fled the area before coalition forces arrived.

“They (the insurgents) are afraid of us. They won’t fight us man to man. They’ll plant roadside bombs or wait until we’re asleep to attack us,” Davis said.

But Davis and his Soldiers won’t be deterred from doing their job, he said.

“We’re going to track them down. We’re going to catch them or run them out of this area,” said Davis.

One of the alleged terrorists, a suspected roadside bomb emplacer, was nowhere to be found, said Davis.

Davis questioned residents about the insurgents he was searching for, and their activities in the area, but didn’t get any answers. He believes locals are afraid of retribution from insurgents if they talk.

“(Insurgents) will walk up to someone, shoot and kill them. And then they tell everyone else, ‘This is what will happen to you if you talk,’” Davis said.

Davis said conducting missions like this one will be the only way to break the grip insurgents have on communities like Balour.

“We just have to keep going out there and doing it,” said Spc. Thomas Gruenberg, a fire support specialist assigned to Headquarters platoon, Troop A, 6-9 Cav. Regt. “The more we go out there, (residents) will see they can help us and that we can help them.”

Help them, he said, get the insurgents out of their neighborhoods and make it a safer place for the locals to live and for coalition forces to operate.

“It will make it so the attacks on us and each other (sectarian violence) are less frequent,” Gruenberg said. “That way we can eventually pull out and let the Iraqi police and Iraqi army, take over, do their jobs fully and run their country without our support.”



Soldiers search a residence in Balour, Iraq, Feb. 20 for enemy activity during an operation led by members of the Iraqi army with the assistance of 6th Squadron, 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment from Fort Hood, Texas. The squadron-level operation was aimed at finding suspected insurgents in the area.


Staff Sgt. James Davis, a mortar platoon sergeant assigned to the 6th Squadron, 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas, searches for signs of insurgent activity in a residence of Balour, Iraq, Feb. 20. The squadron-level operation was aimed at finding suspected insurgents in the area.


Staff Sgt. James Davis, a mortar platoon sergeant assigned to the 6th Squadron, 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas, looks through a list of suspects his unit is searching for in Balour, Iraq, Feb. 20. The squadron-level operation was aimed at finding suspected insurgents in the area.

Labels: 1st Cavalry Division, 3BCT, 5th Iraqi Army Division, Balour, Iraq, Iraqi Army, Muqdadiyah, photos