NAQUIB, Iraq—Flying several hundred feet over the Diyala River basin in eastern Iraq, it’s not difficult to see why one government leader here calls it a disaster area. Shattered remains of houses dot the landscape, both over the brown and dusty desert areas and the lush, green river basins that have earned this area...
RAMADI, IRAQ-Col. Ahmed Hamid Sharqi was many things-businessman, smuggler, policeman for Saddam Hussein. Now, the U.S. marines stationed here consider him one of their greatest assets in keeping the streets of the capital of Anbar province-only recently some of the most dangerous in the world-safe.
Pfc. Track Palin has been promoted from driver to an “air guard” position in one of the rear hatches of the Stryker vehicle. He stands in the hatch with a rifle and watches out for danger to the vehicle, be it airborne or on the ground. His unit also provides security for the brigade’s...
RAMADI, IRAQ-Many of the U.S. marines in the 2/9 Weapons Company out here in Iraq’s Sunni heartland didn’t sign up for this fight. Most of them, including many who aren’t old enough to buy beer back at their home base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., enlisted when the war here was a shooting war.
The U.S. military launched its first known raid into Syria on Sunday after several years of frustration over Damascus’s unwillingness-or inability-to shut down a regular flow of militants into Iraqi territory. At least seven people were killed when U.S. helicopters struck a construction site near the town of Abu Kamal on the Syrian side...
Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant Islamist group based in Indonesia, was once called “al Qaeda’s Southeast Asia wing” and regarded by many as Osama bin Laden’s most dangerous ally. In 2002, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed reportedly tried to recruit JI members to crash airplanes into the Library Tower in Los Angeles. That plot was...
RAMADI, IRAQ–The squad of marines from the 2/9 Weapons Company is understandably nervous about moving through the market district in downtown Ramadi. Most are on their first tour here, but they well know that these were once some of the bloodiest streets for American troops in a city at one time the heart of...
RAMADI, IRAQ—There’s a perpetual debate among grunts here about which film best captures the true nature of the war in Iraq, including Jarhead (about the first Gulf War), the HBO series Generation Kill, or classics like Apocalypse Now, but the most appropriate one for many of the marines out here in Sunni-dominated Anbar province...