Silflay Hraka

For Tuesday, December 4th;

The Tipping of West Rasheed, Part One

It is an area where Sunni enclaves are facing “Shia-fication” as powerful interests seek to drive the Sunni out of Baghdad; and, it is an area where the Shia militias have freely operated and attempted to spread out from urban Baghdad to attack and disrupt Sunni areas. As Captain Lee Showman of Task Force 1-18 (Vanguards) of the storied 1st Infantry Division notes, “Since we arrived in West Rasheed we have seen the Sunni population driven from the urban areas of Aamel, Jihad, and Risalah, an ongoing attempt to drive all Sunnis from Saydiyah…”

Nine months ago, this area was “al Qaeda Central” and was not only an area of combat, but also a major route into Baghdad for terrorists. It was an area in which kidnappings, murders, direct attacks, snipers, IEDs, and more threatened not only Coalition troops, but the locals as well. It was truly hostile ground, and as Capt. Showman notes in a bit of understatement, it was and is an “…interesting area with an enormous amount of dynamics which make it an extremely difficult counterinsurgency fight.”