Word: baghdad
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...been quiet until dawn on Sunday. As the sun began to rise, Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffrey Sauer's soldiers in eastern Baghdad, based in the shadow of the Shi'ite milita stronghold of Sadr City, were hit with a series of rockets. The attacks were well-coordinated and sophisticated; they were also the first heavy shelling of U.S. bases in the area in several months...
...heavy-handed tactics. But, he says, "That would be the exact example of what [the attackers] want me to do so they can turn the population back in their favor." Now, U.S. troops, not local Shi'ite militiamen, have the initiative and set the tone in this area of Baghdad. Sauer and his men have set to work pursuing leads to track down the militants behind the attack - a process more focused on analyzing evidence and gathering intelligence than on overt displays of force...
Those trends are reflected in the experience of Sauer's battalion, which operates in an area of Baghdad called 9 Nisan. "It was extraordinarily violent when I first got here," said Maj. David C. Freeman, on of the battalion's staff officers. "They really were able to do a number...
...American troops attempted to establish a constant presence in Baghdad's neighborhoods, local insurgents and militia groups pushed back. In 9 Nisan, Sauer's troops sought to demonstrate to residents that they and the Iraqi government, not the militia, controlled the streets. But local militants loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army would not give up their turf without a fight. "It was a contest of wills," Freeman says. "We just kept coming at them, and going out there, and getting into the neighborhood...
...There was one notable flameout: in 2003 Kerik went to Baghdad and Amman to help train Iraqi police but walked out on the job after only a few months. However, the Giuliani halo was still strong enough in late 2004 for George W. Bush to nominate Kerik as the replacement for departing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. It had begun as Giuliani's idea, of course, and the White House glommed onto it quickly. At first, the pick seemed to confirm nothing so much as Giuliani's rising star in his party's heavens. But within a few days, problems...