July 7, 2006
Iraq's New Army Uses Creaky Soviet-Era Armored Vehicles to Recreate a Mailed Fist
By JAMES GLANZ
SABA AL BOR, Iraq, June 30 — Uday Kareem gunned the big 12-cylinder engine in the Soviet-era Russian tank he was driving. A white plume of diesel smoke shot out of the left side of the tank as it charged ahead with something between a clatter and a roar, and for a moment the nightmares of the cold war had been transplanted to a desolate lot just north of Baghdad.
The hulking machine — a T-55, named for the approximate year in the last century when the model went into production — could have been a museum piece. Iraqi mechanics are able to keep it running only by scrounging through scrap yards, local markets and the wrecked hulks on old battlefields for parts that Soviet factories once churned out by the millions but that no one makes — and few even remember — anymore.
But this tank is more than a relic: it is the building block of the new Iraqi Army's first and only armored division. Through an American-sponsored program, the division, with more than 200 old Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers, has been rumbling through villages and fields in this area, trying to dampen insurgent violence.
The armor is a source of enormous pride for an army that was first crushed by superior American firepower, then disbanded, and finally pieced back together again under the close supervision of its conquerors.
Many of the tanks and other vehicles have been salvaged from the remnants of Saddam Hussein's army, which bought countless pieces of Soviet weaponry and has historically relied heavily on armor.
"It's the strong and tall hand of the Iraqi Army," said Staff Col. Abdulla Kuhait Habib, commander of one of the new Iraqi tank units.
In contrast with large parts of the Iraqi infantry that are dominated by raw recruits, the tank units have a decidedly veteran cast, often led by officers who, like Colonel Habib, commanded tank units in the Iran-Iraq war and the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Veteran "tankers," as they are called in English, are still trickling back to run the old machines.
"The problem is not with the tanks," Colonel Habib said. The right leadership, he said, will make the Russian machines run like "the best tank in the world."
That may be an overstatement. The tanks, though still a formidable threat to fighters on foot, are badly outdated. The remarkably cramped gunner's seat inside the T-55 driven by Mr. Kareem, a soldier in the Iraqi Army, is surrounded by a riot of old dials, switches, belts, wires, cables, leather straps and crude optics along with manual controls for moving the turret and the main gun. Shells must be loaded by hand into the breech of the gun.
Like many of the division's tanks, this one came from the northern city of Miqdadiya, near the Iranian border, where they were originally operated by units of Iranian exiles allied with the Iraqi Army during Mr. Hussein's rule. In Mr. Kareem's tank, a veiled Iranian woman still smiles from a photo that seems to have been fastened in place years ago by one of the resistance fighters.
Some of the new units are equipped with a slightly more modern Soviet design, the T-72. Hungary and Greece donated more than 100 of the newer tanks and other armored vehicles to Iraq, and Slovakia sent 300 tons of assorted tank ammunition without charge.
NATO pitched in by providing free transport to Iraq, although the Iraqi Ministry of Defense paid Hungary about $4 million to refurbish the tanks.
Faced with security threats wherever they turn, many Iraqi civilians all but break out in song when they see heavy armor flying Iraqi flags. But the same Iraqis are often disappointed when attacks continue and they learn that even a tank provides no guarantee that the insurgency, which can seemingly melt away and return at will, can be permanently driven out.
Even as the effectiveness of the Iraqi Army continues to be debated, United States Army officers supervising the program say that Iraqi tanks can sometimes create a zone of calm just by rolling into an area and asserting their unmatched presence on the street.
Curiously, the desert-yellow tanks, with an unmistakably Soviet profile that can appear sinister to trained American eyes, have also had a rallying effect on the American military force here.
Col. James F. Pasquarette, who commands the First Brigade Combat Team of the Fourth Infantry Division, based about 10 miles north of Baghdad in Taji, served in West Germany during the cold war. Before coming to Iraq, he said, "I think the only time I'd seen a T-72 was through the gunsight of my own tank."
Now about 300 of Colonel Pasquarette's soldiers are doing what they can to help keep the vehicles running for the Iraqi Ninth Division, one of 10 Iraqi divisions spread throughout the country and the only one that is armored. The advisers are part of what are called military transition teams, small groups of Americans who live and work with Iraqi military units to speed their evolution to an effective fighting force.
Two armored brigades are operating within the Iraqi division, and the Americans hope that a third brigade will be in place in the next six to nine months. Each brigade contains a mix of tanks and smaller armored personnel carriers, mostly other holdovers from American and Soviet cold-war-era arsenals like the BMP, MT-LB and M-113.
So far, even though American and Iraqi officers say that the machines have sometimes been disabled by insurgents' roadside bombs, the armor has succeeded in protecting the soldiers and other people inside. Still, some insurgent bombs have been big enough to harm even modern armored vehicles. And there is still danger for people not fully inside: Bob Woodruff, co-anchor of the ABC News program "World News Tonight," and a network cameraman suffered serious wounds on Jan. 29 when a roadside bomb went off as they were working atop one of Ninth Division's MT-LB's on a highway north of Taji. Both survived and are still recovering.
Whatever its shortcomings, the armor has already proved popular enough with other divisions of the Iraqi Army that it has been deployed outside the Ninth Division's area of responsibility to battles in Ramadi in Anbar Province, to the Baquba area in the north and several times to Baghdad.
As of last week, in fact, 10 of the tanks were in Baghdad as part of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's new security plan for the city. Several of the tanks have become fixtures in Antar Square, the main traffic circle in the volatile neighborhood of Adhamiya.
Fearing civilian that civilians will be hurt, commanders in the Ninth Division's area have so far been extremely wary of letting tanks shoot their main guns at the bands of insurgents who fire and then disappear into alleyways and palm groves. The crews mostly rely on the machine guns mounted on the tank. But in at least one instance earlier this year, an Iraqi tank quickly swiveled its main gun and fired just over the heads of five insurgents attacking with automatic rifles.
The tank crew reported that the effect was instantaneous, said Maj. William Taylor, senior adviser to one brigade of the Ninth Division. "They said that as soon as they fired, it was, 'War's over.' " The insurgents scattered and did not return.
But the incident also revealed discipline problems with the Iraqi units despite their influx of veterans, because the tanks were not supposed to be operating with their main guns loaded. The round landed in an open field and did not injure anyone, Iraqi and American officers said.
On the other hand, the people who work on the tanks have demonstrated a skill at which Iraqis have proved unmatched: keep machines running on little more than ingenuity and a few salvaged parts.
The warehouses at the sprawling Taji base where the mechanics work resemble giant auto shops, the greasy concrete floors strewn with huge V-12 engine blocks, Russian- and Chinese-made gear boxes, chunks of tank tread, hydraulic lines, fuel tanks, old speedometers, cylinder heads, even vacuum tubes for the ancient electronics.
Many of the mechanics also worked on tanks in Mr. Hussein's army, and have no lack of confidence that they can make the hulking old machines work.
"It's not science anymore," said Capt. Khalid Hassan, an engineer at the shop.
Still, a veteran mechanic, Ahmed Ieal, said that because the factories Mr. Hussein maintained to manufacture parts had been looted and destroyed after the 2003 invasion, damaged equipment like cracked engine blocks could not be repaired. Major Taylor said that the Americans understood the problem and that they were trying to get the mechanics new tools.
A roughly four-hour patrol in a convoy of American Humvees led by Lt. Col. Stan Wilson, a senior adviser on a transition team, revealed places where the presence of tanks appeared to have had a dampening effect on insurgent attacks and others where the armor was no match for enemy tactics.
Constant insurgent attacks along one 10-mile stretch of highway immediately north of Baghdad's decorative, arched north gate, have been reduced to a few hit-and-run attacks with small-arms fire from cars, said First Lt. Habib, who is stationed near the gate and asked that his family name not be used for fear of reprisals.
"Anytime they see the tanks on the street they are afraid and they turn back," Lieutenant Habib said. But in the town of Saba Al Bor, just a few miles to the west, residents have been streaming out in the face of mortar attacks that Iraqi tanks are powerless to stop. Insurgents lob mortar shells into the town over a canal from agricultural fields that are miles beyond the effective range of the tanks' main guns.
The silence of those guns is a source of endless frustration for the townspeople, who cheer the presence of Iraqi tanks but want them to shoot back. "We feel good about it," said Ali Firas Fadhil Muhamad, 21, of the Iraqi tanks as he stood outside a cafe in a crowd of other patrons.
"But when the mortars come," Mr. Muhamad said, "we don't have any action."
Last edited by troung; 16 Nov 07, at 07:57.
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
If they're going to field 55's why not at least get them modernized? The M6 modernization package makes them far more effective, by modernizing th fire control system, adding K-5 era, a new road wheel to the chassis, a new turret, a new auto-loader, and a 125mm main gun. Or are the 55's only place holders while the Iraqi Army acquires newer tanks? I mean even a fairly old tank, with a major modernization, can still be a highly effective weapon.
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To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
Place holders, Iraq will start receiving M-60s.If they're going to field 55's why not at least get them modernized? The M6 modernization package makes them far more effective, by modernizing th fire control system, adding K-5 era, a new road wheel to the chassis, a new turret, a new auto-loader, and a 125mm main gun. Or are the 55's only place holders while the Iraqi Army acquires newer tanks? I mean even a fairly old tank, with a major modernization, can still be a highly effective weapon.
__________________
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
........
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
M16s and M4s, nice! Are they new or hand-me-downs?
HD Ready?
I think they are either new or unissued.
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
Iraqi forces in full control of Basra: British general
1 day ago
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Violence has plummeted in Basra and Iraq's security forces are in full control, a British general said on Thursday, a month before a formal handover of the southern oil city to Iraqi authority.
"I'm confident the current level of violence is sufficient for the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) to handle," Major General Graham Binns, head of the coalition forces in south-eastern Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad.
He had no doubt, he said, that Iraq would be ready to take over security in the entire southern province of Basra from the British military on schedule in mid-December.
"I wouldn't have recommended PIC (Provisional Iraqi Control) if I was not confident," he said, adding however, that the handover was not without risk as violence had not dropped off entirely.
"Is there risk? Yes. But you don't make progress unless you take risks," he said.
"In May, June and July the brigades that we had in Basra were standing toe to toe with the militias and fighting some of the most intense tactical battles that we've had to fight during the four years that we've been here.
"We were taking casualties, they were taking casualties ... 90 percent of the violence was directed at us."
The turnaround in the violence, said Binns, came when the last British troops early September left their headquarters at Basra Palace, a sumptuous former residence of Saddam Hussein in the heart of the city, and joined their colleagues at a nearby air base.
The overall number of attacks against the security forces -- British and Iraqi -- in Basra now was about one-tenth of what it was in August, said Binns.
"There has been a remarkable and dramatic reduction in the number of attacks against us," the general said.
This was due, he added, to the fact that the British troops were more difficult to target as they are no longer staying within Basra and that capabilities of the Iraqi police and army "has improved and is improving day by day."
Furthermore, he added, "the motivation for the militia for attacking us was removed in that we are no longer seen as an army of occupation patrolling the streets in Basra."
Significantly, said the general, the main militia operating in Basra, the Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, appeared to have called a halt to their attacks.
"The main stream of the Sadrist militias whom we were fighting ... are no longer fighting us on a regular basis. That is not to say that irreconcilable elements of the Sadr spectrum are not intent on attacking us," he said.
"The main stream has bought our offer of a future that will only get better if the security situation improves, if they back the Iraqi police and the army."
Roadside bomb attacks on British convoys and mortar fire into the airport base, which is home to about 5,000 British troops, have not ended entirely.
"There are those who will remain irreconcilable and for whom the offer of money to attack us will be greater than our counter-offer of 'improved security equals prosperity'," said Binns.
Attacks although fewer in number than previously were still being carried out on citizens in Basra, though he could not give figures.
"The level of crime and murder is still unacceptably high and we would like to see it reduced," he said.
However, an expected spike in Shiite-on-Shiite violence had not materialised, mainly because the Mahdi Army had established itself as the dominant militia in the port city against the Badr Brigade of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC).
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that 1,000 of the 5,000 or so British troops at the airbase would be home by Christmas, and that troop levels would be cut to 2,500 by next spring.
Binns said that after the handover -- a date has yet to finalised -- the remaining troops would focus on providing specialist backup to the Iraqi security forces, patrolling Iraq's border with Iran to prevent the smuggling of arms and giving support to the economic regeneration of the Basra region.
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
Coalition Forces Capture 10 in Central Iraq
By Charles Duncan
As reported by Multi National Forces-Iraq, Coalition forces captured 10 individuals during a mission seeking out terrorist networks in central Iraq.
One wanted suspect was detained by Coalition forces during a mission to locate individuals connected to al Qaeda in Iraq members and people associated with the courier network. The wanted suspect was captured by ground forces along with another suspect. There was no resistance during their capture.
Coalition forces, in other areas of central Iraq, captured eight individuals during a mission seeking foreign terrorist and weapons transporters. The mission also involved location couriers and those connected to al Qaeda in Iraq leaders of the northern belt. During the mission a small amount of weapons were found and destroyed to prevent future use by terrorists of their associates.
"Each successful operation leads us to another target, which in turn leads to another," said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesman. "With the help of the Iraqi citizens and their security forces, we are dismantling al-Qaeda in Iraq."
Operation Iron Hammer included the Iraqi Army and Police and included the discovery of weapons storage areas that held over 2,900 liters of nitric acid, over 340 mortar and artillery rounds, military equipment, and a car bomb factor. All of this was located in the Jazeera desert, Western Salah, and Din Province.
1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division uncovered the weapons. They also found over 13,000 rounds of ammunition, about 1,000 47mm anti aircraft rounds, four DSHKA anti aircraft machine guns, 32 anti tank mines, small arms, and detonation cord. 12 men were held by Iraqi Police for events pertaining to al Qaeda.
The car bomb factory, discovered during the operation, held seven vehicles, auto parts for extra support in suspension, and welding equipment. Having reinforced suspension give a vehicle the capability to hold more weight. This goes along with the two 36,000 gallon fuel tankers also found at the site.
In a less fortunate announcement today, the identity of soldier that died during his support of Operation Iraqi Freedom was released today.
Spc. Derek R. Banks died November 14th in San Antonio. Spc. Banks was 24 years old and was injured in Baghdad, Iraq. His vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device on October 25th. He was a member of the 237th Engineer Company, 276th Engineer Battalion, 91st Troop Command of the Virginia National Guard in West Point, Virginia.
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
Success in Iraq Possible, Commander Says
By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, DC - Success is possible in Iraq, a senior Army commander there said today based on progress he has seen since his recent return to the country.
Speaking to a group of Internet journalists and “bloggers” via telephone from Iraq, Army Brig. Gen. James C. Boozer Sr., deputy commander of Multinational Division North, said he is “absolutely amazed” at improvements there since his return last month. This is his third tour in the country.
“This is a turning point. … I think in the next 12 or 15 months … that we’re going to make history. We’re going to allow the nation of Iraq to build itself,” Boozer said. “I believe that we can have success in Iraq, that it is possible.”
Boozer said he has seen “an absolute certain increase in capacity” in the Iraqi security forces since a previous tour there in 2004 and 2005.
Four Iraqi army divisions with about 55,000 soldiers operate in the nearly 50,000-square-mile area Boozer is responsible for. About 80,000 Iraqi police operate there, along with 25,000 coalition forces.
Boozer called the Iraqi security forces there some of the best he’s seen. For the most part, he said, they are conducting independent operations at a brigade combat team level. “That is a large leap from what they were able to do back in 2004-2005,” he said.
The commander said three elements are essential to continued progress in the region:
* -- Allowing provincial local governments the ability to dialogue with the central government;
* -- Transitioning Iraqi security forces so they can conduct independent operations; and
* -- Setting conditions for a stable economic environment so the economy can grow.
“We’re doing nation building here,” he said. “We need to sustain and attain the security environment that we are currently enjoying.”
Increased security has resulted in a decline in violence in the region, he said. Also, a groundswell of local citizens is coming forward to help secure neighborhoods and join the Iraqi security forces. “All of this is coming together at the right time and the right place, I think, where we can see success here in Iraq in the coming future,” Boozer said.
Some al Qaeda cells have migrated north after being driven out of Baghdad by military operations there. But, Boozer said, his forces are pinpointing those cells.
“We believe that we have clearly disrupted al Qaeda here in MND North, and we will continue to sustain that pressure on them. We believe that that they are on their heels, that we’ve certainly knocked the breath out of them. But they can still conduct vicious attacks, … but they are isolated vicious attacks. They cannot bring together complex attacks like they could in the past,” Boozer said.
Coalition forces also will continue working with the Iraqi army and police on their logistics abilities and sustainment capabilities, which are showing progress, as well, Boozer said.
Source: US Department of Defense
===============
So they can now fight at the Brigade level on their own...
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
US-Iraqi assault 'targets al-Qaeda'
A suicide bomber struck in Kirkuk on Thursday, killing seven people and wounding 20 more [AFP]
Reports from Iraq say 600 US and Iraqi soldiers have launched an air and ground assault on two villages allegedly sheltering al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters.
The soldiers are reported to be searching villagers' homes to try to flush out al-Qaeda fighters hiding among them.
The Associated Press news agency reported quoting the US military that Chinook helicopters and Black Hawks dropped the soldiers into the villages 20km south of Baghdad before dawn on Friday.
The raids took place around 4am in the villages of Owesap and Betra.
In video
Growing violence in
Basra as more women
are targeted
Some 150 Iraqi soldiers participated in the operation, Major Alayne Conway, spokeswoman for the army's 3rd Infantry Division, said.
By midday on Friday, there were no casualties on either side, she said.
Past attacks
"These are areas where we believe al-Qaida was staging attacks, and we also believe they have ties to the May 12th attack," Conway said.
Three US soldiers were kidnapped after their patrol was ambushed on May 12 near Mahmudiya, also south of Baghdad.
Four other Americans and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in the attack, and an al-Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility.
Two soldiers remain missing, and the body of the third was found in the Euphrates River nearly two weeks later.
Al-Qaeda losses
Iraqi police said eight al-Qaeda fighters were killed in a separate incident in a Shia village near Muqdadiya, north of Baghdad.
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Shia townspeople, backed by police, drove the Sunni fighters out of the village and killed eight of them, police said.
Meanwhile, a top British commander in southern Iraq said attacks plunged 90 per cent across the country's south after the UK withdrew its troops from the city of Basra.
The presence of British forces in the centre of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, was the single largest instigator of violence, Major-General Graham Binns said on Thursday on a visit to Baghdad's Green Zone.
About 500 British troops moved out of a former Saddam Hussein palace at Basra's heart in early September, joining some 4,500 at a garrison at an airport on the city's edge.
De-Baathification
Also on Friday, Falah Hassan Shanshal, the head of the Iraqi parliament's "de-Baathification Committee", said a draft law that would allow former Saddam followers to hold government jobs is unconstitutional.
The new law was submitted to parliament this week. If approved, it would relax curbs on former Baath Party members - a key demand of the US and Sunni Arabs.
Among other things, Shanshal said the law might open government jobs to low-ranking Baath members who had still committed crimes and would trigger a backlash among Iraqis - especially Shias.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the US senate blocked a Democratic proposal to pay for the Iraq war but require that troops start coming back.
Friday's 53-45 vote was 15 votes short of the 60 needed to advance.
It came minutes after the senate rejected a Republican proposal to pay for the Iraq war without strings attached. The Republican measure failed by an identical vote.
Roadside bomb
On the ground, violence continued in Iraq on Friday, with one civilian killed by a roadside bomb outside a motorcycle shop in central Baghdad, police said.
The US military says violence levels in Baghdad
have declined in recent months [Getty]
Four others were wounded by the blast and transferred to a nearby hospital, they said.
About an hour earlier, assailants opened fire on the same spot, wounding one civilian, police said.
The attacks took place near the Abdul-Qadir al-Gailani mosque, a Sunni shrine in central Baghdad's Sinak district, a mixed area.
The previous day, a suicide car bomber struck in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing seven people and wounding 20 more.
Brigadier-General Khatab Aref Abdallah, the chief of the police emergency unit in charge of the fight against al-Qaeda in Kirkuk province, was among the wounded.
Last edited by troung; 16 Nov 07, at 23:47.
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
..............
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
Besides, what does Iraqi army need advanced tanks for right now? It has to stablize the nation first. The primary threats are insurgents not usually driving tanks.Originally Posted by troung
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
A base T-55 against an insurgent with an RPG-7 is a coffin for 4 on treads.
Pretty much infantry support and presence patrols are the only things they need tanks for.Besides, what does Iraqi army need advanced tanks for right now? It has to stablize the nation first. The primary threats are insurgents not usually driving tanks.
As are practically any of the Iraq army vehicles in theory.A base T-55 against an insurgent with an RPG-7 is a coffin for 4 on treads.
They are pretty much stop gaps for new equipment. Most were refurbished from Saddam era stocks to provide some tank support.
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
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