Good News Out Of Iraq

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This stuff NEVER gets mentioned in the MSM:

? Coalition forces turned over Camp Zulu in As Suwayrah, Iraq, to the Iraqi Army on Aug. 21. The division?s 3rd Battalion, 3rd Brigade will be permanently housed there. This is the twenty-fourth base to be turned over to the Iraqis, returning the land to the government elected by the people.

? Approximately 25,000 Iraqis in the Dahuk, Babylon and Wassit Provinces will get treated potable water, thanks to three million dollars released for local projects. The projects will upgrade 15 systems, each including water wells, compact potable water treatment plants and pumps. Completion dates for the 15 projects vary, but are all scheduled to be finished by January of 2006.

? Construction has restarted on Sadr City?s $902,000 Al Sadr Fire Station project, after a recent construction collapse while concrete was being placed. The project is scheduled for completion in March of 2006. This three-story structure is almost 10,000 square feet and features five bays; three for ladder trucks and two for SUVs. It includes a dormitory area for 20 firefighters, dining room for 30, commercial-grade kitchenette to feed 40 people, a training room for 20, a locker room, a control room and a chief?s office.

? Phase III of the $10 million Najaf Teaching Hospital project began this week with a symbolic ?ground-breaking? ceremony on the second floor of the hospital. This phase of the project includes civil, mechanical, electrical and plumbing rehabilitation throughout the facility. The contract also includes a physicians? residence building, sewer treatment plant, a morgue, storage and garages, and remodeling of the main entrance to the hospital.

? International Flight Lands in Basra – The first international flight to land in Basra, Iraq in 15 years arrived Monday, receiving a warm welcome from local officials.

Or how about the good news from last week?

BAGHDAD, Iraq ? Some of the Iraqi citizens benefiting from reconstruction this week were school children. Several projects were completed across the country, including school buildings. The Iraqi Security Forces continued to display their capability, and local citizens contributed to the security of their communities.

Children in Dobak Tappak village of Al Tamim Province received much-needed school supplies, clothing and toys from the Nahrain Foundation, a non-governmental organization that focuses on providing proper nutrition, decent clothing and medical supplies to Iraqi women and children. The foundation received its supplies as part of a joint effort between American donations and a Coalition forces-run program known as ?Operation Provide School Supplies,? which accepts donations from private citizens and corporations in the U.S.

More than 600 children will return to renovated or rebuilt schools in Maysan Province when school starts this fall. This week, renovation on the Al-Eethnar Mud School was completed, and the Al Eethar Mud School was replaced at a cost of $87,000, benefiting 500 students who attend classes there.

In addition to reconstruction on schools, eight newly constructed schools in Wassit and Babil Provinces are receiving new furniture before the start of the school year. Each of the school projects will receive office desks and chairs, file cabinets and new student desks. Collectively, 400 three-student desks will be proportionally divided among the schools, based upon the number of students.

More reconstruction projects in Sadr City started this week, including the $13 million electrical distribution project for sectors one through eight. When complete, an estimated 128,000 people will have a reliable source of electricity. The project includes installation of power lines, 3,040 power poles, 80 transformers, 2,400 street lights, and power connections to individual homes, complete with meters.

Construction started on the $3.8 million Al Rayash Electricity Substation project in Al Daur District of Salah Ad Din Province, located between Tikrit and Bayji. The project, which is expected to be completed in early December, will provide reliable service to 50,000 Iraqi homes and small businesses. An electric distribution and street lighting project in Daquq was completed on Aug. 17, providing new overhead distribution lines and street lighting in the community.

Approximately two million people will benefit from the Baghdad trunk sewer line, which was completed this week. Workers cleaned and repaired the Baghdad trunk sewer line and its associated manholes and pumping stations. The $17.48 million project restored principal sewage collection elements in the Adhamiya, Sadr City and 9-Nissan districts of Baghdad, and will provide for the intended sewer flows to the Rustamiya wastewater treatment plant.

In Basrah, construction is complete on phase one of the $865,000 Basrah courthouse project. This five-phase project is expected to be entirely complete in October of 2005. This main courthouse in Basrah, expected to hold a number of high profile trials, continues to operate during construction. Iraqi subcontractors are working on the project, and employing an average of 70 local Iraqi workers daily.

Iraqi security forces benefited from reconstruction projects this week as well. A patrol station in the Karkh district of Baghdad Province was completed, as was a $390,300 border-post project on the Saudi Arabian border. A division headquarters building for the Iraqi Army in Salah Ad Din Province was also completed this week. The $7 million project includes a single-story building with a concrete roof and interior office space to accommodate the unit. Additionally, a $2 million firing range in Taji was completed this week.

To accommodate additional detainees, a new prison project was started in Khan Bani Sa?ad, a mountainous municipality in the Ba?quba District of Diyala Province. The $75 million project will house up to 3,600 inmates. The entire site is approximately 550,000 square meters, which includes an educational center, medical facilities and administration buildings. The project will employ approximately 1,000 Iraqi workers during construction.

In another move that highlights the increasing turnover of security responsibilities to Iraqi forces, generals from Iraqi and Coalition forces joined local tribal leaders at a ceremony where Forward Operating Base Dagger in Tikrit, one of Saddam Hussein?s former palaces, was officially handed over to the 4th Iraqi Army Division this week.

Iraqi Security Forces continued training this week. In Taji, Iraqi soldiers completed a Strategic Infrastructure Battalion Train-the-Trainer course. The 90 graduates will go on to serve as instructors at an Iraqi Army training base. A class of future IA non-commissioned officers graduated from their primary leadership development course on Aug. 15 in Tikrit. Iraqi Army unit training also included combat lifesaving, staff training, computer skills and weapons training.

This week, the 1st Iraqi Army Brigade succeeded at implementing the first Non-commissioned Officer Academy in the country. Iraqi soldiers from the most recent class were the last group to be instructed by the U.S. Soldiers who had developed the training. During Saddam Hussein?s regime, an NCO corps did not exist in the Iraqi Army. The class will continue after the U.S. instructors leave, and will be taught by NCOs from the 1st IA who assisted earlier courses.

Baghdad police continued to demonstrate their capabilities this week. Iraqi Police Service officers in the New Baghdad District conducted a variety of operations including raids involving over 450 officers. Police confiscated 30 AK-47 rifles, two hand guns, and one machine gun during the raids.

They also arrested 30 suspected insurgents, three of whom were targeted in the raids. In addition, police at the Al Khanssa Police Station in Baghdad captured a kidnapper involved in the abduction of a local physician, whose family paid a ransom to have the victim released. Following the arrest, police officers recovered the doctor?s vehicle as well as the ransom money paid by his family.

Iraqi Army soldiers found a weapons cache under a vehicle in Rawah this week. The cache contained two light machine guns and 3000 rounds of ammunition, nine AK-47 rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition, one NATO machine gun and 200 rounds of ammunition, four concussion grenades, one fragmentary grenade without fuses, and various other ammunition.

Based on two separate tips from Iraqis, Coalition forces discovered weapons caches that contained rocket-propelled grenades and two launchers, 16 mortar rounds and a launcher, and five boxes of anti-aircraft ammunition hidden in northwest Baghdad.

Another tip led Coalition forces to a large cache of artillery shells in the early hours of Aug. 16. The shells were apparently intended for use as improvised explosive devices. The 25 to 30 individual rounds, located inside a building within Al Anbar Province, were destroyed after security forces confirmed there was no one in the building.

After a local Iraqi identified his neighbors as insurgents, Iraqi Army soldiers and Coalition forces conducted a joint cordon and search operation in northwest Fallujah and detained two suspects.

Iraqi Security Forces killed terrorist Abu Zubair, also known as Mohammed Salah Sultan, in an ambush in the northern city of Mosul this week. Zubair, who was wearing a suicide vest when he was killed, was a known member of Al Qaeda in Iraq and a lieutenant in Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi?s terrorist operations in Mosul. He was being sought for his involvement in a July suicide bombing attack of a police station in Mosul that killed five Iraqi police officers. He was also suspected of resourcing and facilitating suicide bomber attacks against Coalition, Iraqi Security Forces and Iraqi citizens throughout the country.

Local Iraqi citizens, along with the growing Iraqi Security Forces, are contributing to the security of their communities. Reconstruction efforts also provided Iraqis with improved basic services, paving the way for a safe and secure environment.

Why report on the good news when the doom & gloom left and their cohorts in the MSM can report how America is bad, Iraq is bad, the world is bad….woe is me.

Bluto has got a post up pretty much saying the same thing:

The American Forces Press Service reports that Iraqi and Coalition forces captured five terrorist suspects yesterday in Balad, while Iraqi soldiers near Kirkuk discovered a weapons cache. From the bulletin:

Soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, and elements of Task Force 5-7 concluded Operation War Paint Dakota, which led to the capture of five suspected insurgents. All five detainees were transported to a nearby forward operating base for questioning.

Elsewhere, Iraqi army soldiers assigned to the K-1 airfield in Kirkuk discovered a cache three kilometers northwest of Forward Operating Base Warrior Aug. 27.

The soldiers found 19 120 mm artillery rockets, four Katusha rockets and one mortar tube. The munitions were transported to K-1 airfield.

Also:

…multinational forces from Task Force Freedom detained 18 suspected terrorists and seized a weapons cache in Mosul Aug. 27 and today.

Also:

Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery detained nine individuals suspected of terrorist activity during operations in Mulhallabiyah Aug. 27. Soldiers from 2-8 FA also discovered a weapons cache consisting of rocket-propelled-grenade-launchers, 20 rocket-propelled grenades, six improvised-explosive-device detonators, mortar systems, an anti-tank mine, 20 hand grenades with 100 fuses, and ammunition.

Also:

Iraqi army soldiers and coalition forces conducted a targeted raid against an insurgent assassination cell suspected of planning attacks on government officials in Khalis Aug. 26.

Soldiers with the 1st Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, and elements of Task Force 2-69 quickly cleared their two objectives. Soldiers detained 11 suspected insurgents and transported them to a secure facility for questioning.

Also:

In Hit Iraqi army soldiers and coalition forces conducting a dismounted patrol responded to the scene of an improvised-explosive-device detonation and searched the area, capturing two wounded insurgents Aug. 26.

Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force, and U.S. Marines with 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, searched the immediate area of the explosion and found two injured insurgents suspected of being the triggermen. The suspects were in possession of three AK-47 automatic rifles and one 12-volt battery. Both suspects tested positive for gunpowder residue.

Also:

…multinational forces raided a suspected terrorist hideout in Ramadi Aug. 23 and captured a pair of known terrorists.

Captured were Durayd Jassar Khalifah Hamud, also known as Abu Jabbar, a known terrorist leader and weapons dealer; and Ali Husayn Muhammad Jasim, also known as Khalid Nazal or Abu Umar, a known IED cell leader.

I’m reprinting these stories on the off chance that our loyal, unbiased, non-partisan mainstream media completely ignore them.