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WASHINGTON D.C. (January 11, 2008) - A neighborhood formerly
overrun by al Qaeda in Baghdad's Rashid district has been cleared
of the enemy and is starting to thrive again, a U.S. commander in
Iraq said.
The sanctuary al Qaeda had in eastern Rashid's Hadar
neighborhood was "one of the last significant concentrations of al
Qaeda in Baghdad," Army Col. John RisCassi said yesterday during a
teleconference with online journalists and "bloggers."
RisCassi is commander of the 25th Infantry Division's 2nd
Stryker Cavalry Regiment, which began conducting operations to
remove al Qaeda from eastern Rashid in September.
"The regiment had great success," RisCassi said. "After 106 days
of continuous operations, we have reduced enemy attacks in east
Rashid from over 12 a day to less than one event every two
days."
Soldiers also destroyed more than 100 improvised explosive
devices and confiscated more than 50 caches containing various
munitions, explosives and weapons, he said.
Many of the operations were focused in the Hadar neighborhood,
where al Qaeda operatives had a stronghold from which they were
able to influence the rest of Rashid district, RisCassi
explained.
"It was a sanctuary for al Qaeda, and since we removed that
sanctuary, it's able to start ... thriving again," he said.
RisCassi said that when his regiment first visited Hadar four
months ago, very few people were in the neighborhood because
residents had been displaced due to al Qaeda's violence. "But
today, I will tell you, it looks very different," he said. "We have
families moving back into Hadar on a daily basis. Stores are
opening back up. Markets are opening back up."
Now that al Qaeda is cleared, the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment
has established a permanent presence in Hadar and is pushing to get
residents back to work and to stand up the local economy, RisCassi
said.
The regiment is involved in creating concerned local citizens
groups, which the military calls CLCs. Such groups provide jobs for
local citizens and additional security forces to reinforce their
efforts, he said.
In eastern Rashid district, "there are now over 2,000 CLCs,
including both contracted guards and security volunteers, manning
over 100 checkpoints," he said.
While the elimination of al Qaeda's influence over eastern
Rashid is a huge success, RisCassi said, "there is still a lot of
work to be done."
"This is still a very, very dangerous place; every day it's
dangerous," he said.
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