HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

“extra-judicial killings”
conducted by bands of
murderers who kidnapped,
tortured, and killed people
based on their religious
sect. SOF had always targeted
known kidnappers
and murderers, but after
the rise in sectarian violence
in 2006, death
squads became a primary
target set. In the six
months after the Samarra
mosque bombing, SOF
conducted hundreds of
operations against suspected
murderers, capturing
more than 150 killers,
detaining more than 500
suspects, and killing 150
in combat operations. The
2007 surge of conventional
forces dramatically
reduced sectarian violence allowing Iraqi security
forces to start regaining control of the country.
On 29 August 2007, after a major battle in
Karbala with the Badr Corps, a rival Shiite faction,
Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Mahdi
Army, declared a ceasefire in Iraq. Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki employed Hillah SWAT,
ERU, and ISOF to bring the city under control.
The Prime Minister relied on his premier SOF
and Iraqi police (IP) units to quell this violence.
These ISOF and IP units were from different
parts of the country. Advised by U.S. SOF units,
the Iraqi security forces were instrumental in
returning peace to Karbala. In
February 2008, Sadr extended
the ceasefire for another six
months.
During a September 2007
visit to Anbar Province in western
Iraq, President George W.
Bush said, “Anbar is a huge
province. It was once written
off as lost. It is now one of the
safest places in Iraq.” The reason
for this turnabout was that
Anbaris “who once fought side
by side with al Qaeda against
PFC Jessica Lynch being rescued.
THE RESCUE OF JESSICA LYNCH
On 1 April 2003, a joint element, consisting
of NSW, Rangers, Marines,
and SOF aviation, launched a successful
raid to rescue PFC Jessica
Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyah.
Army and Marine ground forces also
conducted diversionary attacks to
prevent reinforcements from moving
to the hospital during the rescue.
136
coalition troops [are] now
fighting side by side with
coalition troops against al
Qaeda.” The program that
convinced the Anbaris to
support the coalition and
the Iraqi national government
was called “tribal
engagement,” one of the
most successful U.S. programs
implemented in
Iraq. It was so successful
that it was extended to
other provinces, and
through the Concerned
Local Citizens (CLC) program,
which became the
Sons of Iraq program, the
same approach has spread
to areas where tribal loyalties
were weaker than in
Anbar. Tribal engagement
started early in the war,
but did not take hold until SOF started the
“Desert Protector” program in 2005.
The initial vision called for Desert Protectors
to bridge the gap between the Iraqi government’s
forces and the tribal militias by creating
a government-sanctioned tribal force. The
Desert Protectors would provide local intelligence
and additional troops to U.S. and Iraqi
security forces, and would help break the cycle of
violence between the tribes and the U.S. and
Iraqi government forces. Starting near Al Qaim,
the Desert Protectors had a rocky beginning, but
once it got started, other tribes joined the Desert
Protectors.
U.S. Soldiers maintain a perimeter during a CA assessment patrol just blocks
from the Golden Mosque of Samarra 14 February 2006.