You won't see in the MSM. Iraqi Security Forces Update:
Translation:"Iraqi SWAT Team"
An exclusive sent to Jeff Quinton by W. Thomas Smith, Jr., who wrote a recent NRO piece on Iraqi Special Forces. The poster is courtesy of Capt. David Nevers, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
An excerpt from Smith's latest NRO piece:From their operating base in Kalsu (so-named for Bob Kalsu, a Buffalo Bills lineman and Army lieutenant who was killed during the Vietnam War), Douglas tells National Review Online, "The Iraqis are performing well-above my expectations. Their strengths are their aggressiveness and mobility, and we are enhancing those strengths."
Douglas, commander of a Marine Force reconnaissance platoon and a reconnaissance and surveillance platoon, is referring to a crack Iraqi SWAT (special-weapons and tactics) team, sometimes referred to as the Al Hillah SWAT team.
Last week, the Iraqi SWAT team and other members of the Iraqi security forces (about 800 men combined) backed by U.S. Marines (about 1,300) launched an offensive aimed at retaking guerilla strongholds south of the Sunni Triangle. The strongholds lie within Babil province, home of the ancient city of Babylon, though today a virtual no-man's-land rife with kidnappings, ambushes, and murder.
Mz Heinz Kerry frets about an UBL October suprise, given the ongoing ops in the Sunni Triangle, she may be half right. Al-Zarqawi's head on a pike would be equally satisfying.
(hat tip to INDC Journal)