Iraqi Troops Taking Over Georgian Base

Iraqi Troops Taking Over Georgian Base (NSI News Source Info) August 15, 2008: BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces are taking over checkpoints near the Iranian border that had been manned by Georgian troops until they departed for their country's conflict with Russia, the U.S. military said today. Shiite pilgrims, meanwhile, faced more violence as they headed toward the holy city of Karbala for a major religious festival. A roadside bomb struck a minibus beginning the trip in eastern Baghdad Friday morning, killing at least one passenger and wounding 10 others, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information. The attack came a day after a female suicide bomber struck Shiite pilgrims resting by the side of a road south of Baghdad in Iskandariyah, killing at least 18 people and wounding 75. The U.S. military said 18 people were killed, but Iraqi police in the area gave a higher death toll of 26. AP Television News footage showed a bloodied young boy covered with a wool blanket in his hospital bed while relatives wheeled a wounded woman shrouded in a black cloak through the corridor. Georgia's announcement last week that it was recalling its soldiers from Iraq has forced the Americans to shuffle units to fill the vacuum. The 2,000 Georgians had been responsible for searching vehicles and people at a series of checkpoints along smuggling routes in the desert border region near Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. The former Soviet republic had been the third-largest contributor of coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain. Iraqi soldiers already have taken over traffic checkpoints and are providing security at the entrance of the Georgians' former patrol base, the U.S. military said. Meanwhile, American soldiers with the 41st Fires Brigade are training them to take over the rest of the Georgians' mission, including patrols and the base itself, according to the statement. The move came after U.S. officials acknowledged the Georgians' departure would have a "near-term impact" but insisted adjustments were being made to minimize the disruption to operations. Americans have increasingly been trying to move to more of an oversight role and letting Iraqi security forces take the lead so the foreign troops can eventually go home. "They have stepped up to the plate, and their partnership is why we are able to take over the mission that the Georgians had to leave behind, with no change in the security and safety of the Iraqi people," brigade commander Col. Richard M. Francey, Jr., said of the Iraqi troops. Last year, Georgia agreed to move most of its soldiers from the relatively safe Green Zone in Baghdad to the mainly Shiite desert area southeast of the capital. The purpose was to help interdict weapons and other supplies allegedly smuggled to militiamen from Iran, particularly powerful roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs. At the time, U.S. commanders said the Georgians would give their strapped forces a boost by helping search vehicles and people along highways as part of stepped-up efforts to stanch the flow of illegal arms and foreign fighters to Baghdad. But Georgia called its forces home after an outbreak of fighting with Russia over two breakaway provinces.