Mortar
rounds and other improvised explosive device-making materials were
turned over to Coalition Forces by the "Neighborhood Watch" in Taji,
Iraq June 25. U.S. Army photo.
CAMP TAJI
— For a second time this week, Iraqi citizens here turned in a large
cache consisting of improvised explosive device-making material and
mortar rounds.
The Taji neighborhood watch contacted Coalition Forces
June 25, after the driver of a truck fled the scene when the volunteers
stopped a suspicious vehicle moving through the rural village of Abd
Allah al Jasim. The vehicle contained 24 mortar rounds, two rockets,
spare machine gun barrels, small arms ammunition and other IED-making
material.
"This grassroots movement of reconciliation by the
volunteers is taking off all around us. The tribes that had once
actively or passively supported al-Qaeda in Iraq now want them out,"
said Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak, the deputy commander of the 1st
"Ironhorse" Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.
The
neighborhood watch is made up of a group of 500 volunteers, from a
number of tribes in the area, who want reconciliation with the
Coalition Forces and the Iraqi government. The volunteers are currently
being vetted for possible future selection for training as Iraqi Police
or some other organization within the Iraqi Security Forces.
The
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division is constructing 142
Primary Healthcare Centers - worth more than $132 million – across
Iraq. Currently, 73 clinics are completed and 23 are open and seeing
upwards of 350 patients a day. The program, which is 96 percent
complete, is expected to close out in January 2008.