Operations in Tarmia
...An example of how you do counter insurgency warfare. There is much more in the weekly press briefing.Let me spend some time and talk about (Tigris Waves ?), a very important operation we started on the 25th of March in the city of Tarmia and one of Baghdad's -- (inaudible). The people of that city came to us and the Iraqi security forces and said, hey, we're tired of the terrorists and the insurgents in our city. So we planned and conducted an operation with the Iraqi security forces, started on the 25th of March.
The first thing we did is cordon off the city -- six kilometers worth of barrier material to cordon off the city to restrict access from the terrorists into the city, and two established checkpoints. After that operation started and that barrier material was there, we worked through the city to rid the city of terrorists. But as I've talked about before, kinetic operations are only a portion of counterinsurgency operations, so let me tell you the rest of the story in Tarmia.
Now that we're convinced we've rid the city of terrorists and we've blockaded the city so terrorists can't come in, we focused on improving the conditions for the people of that city. Two days after the operation started, we established a medical health clinic. And on that very first day, 375 citizens of the city of Tarmia were treated. We started working with the local leaders to determine what they thought they needed for infrastructure to improve and meet the basic needs of the people of Tarmia. And we have now dedicated $4 million worth of assets -- resources -- to improve their living conditions -- water, roads, infrastructure. The city leadership said, hey, to maintain the security situation we have now, we need to get local citizens enrolled in the police force. So they sent out a net call and said, hey, we need you, the citizens of Tarmia, to come forward and join the Iraqi police -- 2,000 volunteers out of that city. Detailed screening process, vetting process; of that, 225 were selected. They're now moving to Jordan to attend a police academy in Jordan, will come back and be policemen on the streets of their hometown. Think about that, 2,000 volunteers.
There's a corollary action going on right now in that same area for recruiting folks into the Iraqi army, led by the 9th Mechanized Division. It's a great operation that started kinetically and is now in the non-kinetic phase to improve the basic needs, meet the basic needs, of the city of Tarmia and allow them to continue to progress.
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