3rd Infantry Division Operations - Fort Stewart - U.S. Army

20 3rd Infantry Division Operations
called the region home for hundreds of years. About 90% of
all Iraqis in Mesopotamia were Shia. Great shrines had stood
as sacred monuments to devout believers. For ages, the tribes
had subsisted, raised their families, navigated authority, and
practiced their faith and culture, their way. Ornate palaces, the
relative wealth of Sunnis and the clear poverty of Shia communities
gave evidence that under Saddam the favored few jealously
controlled all power. The discovery of mass graves left in
the wake of his regime's collapse demonstrated to the world the
price of opposition in the three decades under his Ba'ath party's
rule. His fall offered all Iraqis a chance for freedom. As Iraq's
new government stood, vicious enemies emerged. Inside Iraq's
borders, men with extreme ideas, radical by every measure of
humanity, sought to turn Iraq into an Islamic caliphate.
Most of the Sunni population in MND-C’s area lived in a
crescent shaped Baghdad suburb that ran southwest to east. The
area was referred to as the "Baghdad Belts." During Saddam's
regime, these belts had functioned as a sort of human wall that
protected the capital from Saddam's enemies. Now, the Baghdad
Belts had become hosts to al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) among
other Sunni extremist entities. Many Sunnis in the Baghdad
Belts had initially allied with AQI to fight the coalition. They
mistakenly believed that AQI was a better alternative to the
new Iraqi government. A victory by al-Qaeda over the coalition
might hasten the return of Sunni domination in Iraq, or so
it was believed. That gamble had proven harmful. Members of
the extremist groups forbade simple pleasures and liberties that
many Iraqis were fond of. They stole wives for themselves.
They held court and punished people they claimed had broken
Islamic law. They siphoned money from the local economy.
They'd not provided essential services. The culture was becoming
like Afghanistan under Taliban rule. This is how AQI