• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

101st providing safe environment in northern Iraq

by Joe Burlas

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, May 14, 2003) -- After fighting its way across about 1,200 kilometers from where it entered Iraq two months ago, the 101st Air Assault Division (Screaming Eagles) has shifted operations to providing a safe and secure environment for Iraqis and hunting for weapons of mass destruction in northern Iraq, said 101st commanding general Gen. Dave Petraeus.

Petraeus gave the Pentagon Press Corps an update on what his troops are doing via a video teleconference May 13.

"Now more than 18,000 Screaming Eagles are on duty in the northern sector of Iraq helping maintain a safe and secure environment in Nineveh Province," Petraeus said. "Our soldiers have deployed throughout our area of operation -- securing cities and key

infrastructure facilities; helping the new interim city and province government get established; conducting joint patrols with Iraqi policemen and manning police stations in the city; helping organize and secure the delivery of fuel and propane; assisting with the organization of the recently begun grain harvest...

"We also are working very hard to collect and secure munitions and weapons that could harm the citizens of Mosul in the area and that typically can be found in caches all over the region -- some 400 that have already been identified, including ones in schools, fields and former military facilities."

In a recent incident of potential unrest, a Mosul television station aired statements from local political agitators and one from "the Saddam letter" calling for Iraqis to riot and rise up against American occupiers. While it is within the coalition's mandate of providing a safe and secure mandate to either close that station down or install an officer with the mission of censoring what is broadcast, Petraeus said he chose not to.

Instead, he had his staff open a dialogue with the station manager which clarified what and what could not be aired. In those talks, 101st staff learned that station workers had been threatened with reprisals once U.S. troops pulled out of the area if the questionable segments were not aired. Petraeus said he talked to those responsible for making the threats and they agreed to stop.

The general said he retained the right to install a censor officer if it became necessary.

On the issue of finding weapons of mass destruction, Petraeus said that the 101st has experienced many false starts.

"There were various Stations of the Cross of evaluating the various items that we would find all the way from the soldier himself with his test kit, then to the chemical NCO, then the battalion and on up to the division experts, and then we'd bring in the Fox recon

vehicle," Petraeus said. "And as you know, we went all the way with positives all the way through the Fox and even beyond once or twice, and then the real experts got it and said, yeah, it was chemicals, but not necessarily precursors or chemical weapon-type items."

The 101st did find a suspected mobile biological agent production lab buried at the Al-Kindi Rocket and Missile Research and Development Center May 9. A data plate on the trailer showed that it was built in 2003.

As operations have shifted from combat operations, Petraeus said his soldiers are just as intent on winning the peace in Iraq as they were in winning the war.