Word: outposts
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There are two important rules at Combat Outpost Rabiya, a tiny compound recently erected by U.S. troops on the west side of Mosul. First, do not urinate in any of the three wooden outhouses built over a ditch in the back. The waste has to be burned since there is no running water, and that is difficult to do when it's wet. Visitors are politely told to direct fluids into a hose leading downhill to a creek. Second, when going to the toilet--or anywhere away from the shelters of the camp's twin tents--always wear a helmet...
...where the surge has been concentrated, many find that their task has changed dramatically since their previous tours. Staff Sergeant Shane Plummer, 27, was an infantryman during the 2003 assault on Baghdad and was posted to the Diyala River Valley in 2005. These days, he's based at Combat Outpost Cashe, 12 miles (20 km) southeast of Baghdad, where he focuses more on building relationships with Iraqis than on fighting them. With each tour, he says, "the mission has changed more toward making friends than finding...
...Insurgents move with relative freedom in the area, planting on average four roadside bombs a day while unleashing periodic hails of small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells in the direction of the small base. Four guard towers stand roughly 100 paces apart at corners of the outpost, framing a walled-off patch of muddy earth littered with shattered concrete and junked vehicles...
This used to be a municipal yard where the city parked dump trucks, steamrollers, backhoes and other vehicles. Norris and other officers had another spot in mind for the outpost, which overlooks the point where the main road linking Baghdad and northern Iraq meets a major artery running east and west. But insurgents had watched the troops as they scouted locations, and a sick comedy of explosions unfolded. Soldiers would eye a building and develop plans to occupy it, only to see it bombed shortly after they had visited it. At some point, someone graffitied a misspelled insult in English...
...insurgents in their areas were. U.S. military officials estimate that roughly 300 hard-core fighters operate in Mosul, chiefly on the predominately Sunnni west side of the city. Attacks there are 50% higher than elsewhere in Mosul, according to Lt. Col. Michael Simmering, a commander at the main U.S. outpost in Mosul, Forward Operating Base Marez. But so far U.S. and Iraqi forces have failed to rein in the fighters, who stage daily attacks around the city. "The insurgents do have the ability to move around the city freely," said Simmering...