Iraqi Intervention Force
New Iraqi Army, 1st Division
The Iraqi Intervention Force is a branch of the Iraqi Army specifically trained in counterinsurgency operations. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq's interim government announced organizational changes for the country's security forces, along with a plan for taking on Iraq's enemies, at a 20 June 2004 Baghdad news conference. Allawi envisions the Iraqi rapid intervention forces thwarting sabotage elements, "especially those who chose to hide behind innocent Iraqis in our cities and villages." As a first order by Iraq's new Ministry of Defense, the all-Iraqi Intervention Forces began patrolling the streets of Baghdad on 28 June 2004.
Having more than a month of experience in patrols in their new sector, the 2nd Battalion, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force (IIF) Brigade - the first Iraqi unit to be assigned a sector in Baghdad - moved things up a bit in their area of Abu Dashir. Security and patrols were the first things the battalion learned during their right-seat/left-seat ride in Abu Dashir with their predecessors, Company C, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment. But on August 9th, they took part in a new task: civil military operations.
The Iraqi Intervention Forces' 2nd Battalion, "Leopards," formally took responsibility for part of the 5th Brigade Combat Team's area of operations during a short ceremony 31 July 2004. This is the first time that an IIF unit has taken control of a sector. What they bring to the table is new capabilities. The Leopard's leadership uncased the battalion's colors to signify the unit's activation and assumption of Abu Dashir of the Al Rashid district. The 1st Cavalry Division's 5th BCT patrols Baghdad's Al Rashid. The 5th BCT's Company C, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, used to patrol the area. The Leopard's main mission will be combat operations. They'll take on the missions that are beyond the capabilities of the Iraqi National Guard like arresting high profile terrorists, or large cordon-and-search operations. They've already taken on such missions, Davis said. The battalion has been patrolling Abu Dashir for about a month now and conducted several large operations, one of which resulted in the in the arrest of one of the Multi-National Force's most wanted terrorists. The Iraqi Soldiers are motivated to do this mission, Davis said. Several times the Leopard's commander has asked the advisor not to go with them on missions, he said.
The Iraqi Intervention Forces' 4th Battalion was deployed to a southern Baghdad base in early August 2004 for stability and support operations in the city as part of the Iraqi government's continued effort to provide security to the nation. The unit had previously spent several months at the Taji Military Training Base north of Baghdad in special military operations in urban terrain training. The Iraqi Intervention Force is the branch of the Iraqi Army specifically trained in counterinsurgency operations. This is now one of three Iraqi battalions being employed in the Baghdad area of operations. The unit will work with Multi-National Forces in the area at the direction of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense conducting a variety of missions including traffic control points, intelligence missions, and security and presence patrols. The 4th Battalion will interact routinely with the Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi Police Service forces in the same sector.
The 5th Battalion was activated in July 2004 and two additional battalions deployed to the Baghdad area. These battalions joined the previously deployed Iraqi Intervention Forces 2nd Battalion, to form an army security force of three fully trained regular army units in and around Baghdad.
Since the conception of the Iraqi Intervention Force as a specialist counter-insurgency unit, born of necessity in April 2004 whenconventional Iraqi forces proved unwilling and largely incapable of dealing with the intensified insurgency in Fallujah, the force has expanded to a strength of 9 battalions of approximately eight hundred men (fairly large by new Iraqi Army standards, where an effort has been made in recent months to slim down new regular army battalions to four or five hundred.) The emphasis of IIF force development is very much on urban operations, which are the focus of an additional five weeks of instruction after the initial four of basic and eight of cadre training.
Nominally, the IIF makes up the 1st, 5th and 6th Brigades of the nine-brigade Iraqi infantry. (It should be borne in mind, however, that a consistent nomenclature is yet to be established and unit identifications are often contradictory in the public domain, while the structure of the forces themselves is constantly evolving.)
On March 20th 2005, a major development was marked by the transferral to IIF control of the centre of Mosul. In previous weeks, the brigade had seen considerable action in the area: On February 17th, during a 'cordon and search' operation in nearby Tel Afar in which 4 insurgents were killed, a large cache of weapons including artillery round, grenades and hundreds of round of ammunition was uncovered by the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade. A week later the same unit made raids which led to the discovery of two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs.) Operations in and around Mosul in early March saw the successful co-operation of the 23rd and 24th Battalions, 6th Brigade, with both coalition forces and the 21st Battalion, 3rd Brigade of the regular Iraqi infantry. Most current operations involve raids in response to tip-offs about the whereabouts of insurgents or counter-attacks, resulting most frequently from insurgent small arms fire and drive-by shootings directed at urban patrols and checkpoints. Such counter-attacks led in March to the capture of a number of mortar tubes, mortar rounds and an RPG launcher.
