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

The Surge 33
manders massed additional forces and planned the fight. The
enemy could not see what was about to happen. The campaign
to clear him from his hideout was set to begin. The time was
ripe for change in the southern Baghdad Belts.
Arab Jabour and Hawr Rajab had been home to well-off
families three years earlier, but al-Qaeda had been able to occupy
these towns without significant ISF or coalition forces to
counter them. In those years of occupation, the enemy, namely
the Abu Jurah terrorist network and al-Qaeda, had had time to
prepare deadly traps. Whole buildings, called House Borne
Improvised Explosive Devices (HBIED) were rigged to explode
on contact, much like the vehicular version in use throughout
Iraq. IEDs were positioned as mine fields. The enemy ruled
the streets and understood how to use the ground for his tactical
advantage.
On June 16th, Multi-National Division - Center launched
Operation Marne Torch in order to defeat insurgents, deny them
a sanctuary, and prevent the enemy from moving accelerants
from Arab Jabour into Baghdad. Spearheading this fight from
the ground were the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry and the 1st
Squadron, 40th Cavalry along with elements of the Iraqi Army
6th Division.
The battle began with an attack by Air Force bombers striking
suspected caches and cutting roads with four precision
guided bombs in Area of Operations (AO) "Denali," part of
Arab Jabour. Secondary explosions detected by video cameras
high above targets confirmed that the B-1s had hit their mark.
This technique would be repeated as often as necessary to keep
troops on the ground from being exposed to IED threats unnecessarily.
On June 23rd, another fourteen bombs were dropped
in order to cut three roads and one road section, thus denying
the enemy freedom to maneuver.