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13th MEU hits Anbar to stop weapons flow

Members of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit have uncovered about 50 tons of explosives and multiple bomb-making factories north of Karmah, Iraq, in a focused effort since hitting the ground in Iraq in May to halt the funneling of makeshift bombs from rural areas into cities to the south.

The MEU has provided the first coalition presence in an insurgency “safe haven” roughly the size of San Diego County, Calif., in northern Anbar province, where weapons used against civilians and coalition forces are stored in the open, members of the MEU reported from Iraq.

Marines have swept the rocky fields in the mostly farming community, searching out weapons and bomb-making supplies, and destroying tons of homemade explosives and more than 400 roadside bombs, MEU officials said.

This comes after groups of insurgents have sought refuge in rural areas. President Bush’s troop surge — aimed at bringing security to Iraq’s major cities — has forced many to flee to the outskirts. Col. Carl Mundy, commander of the 13th MEU, said during a press conference July 1 that his Marines look to cut off travel of Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups, such as al-Qaida in Iraq or the Mahdi Army, from the Anbar and Salahuddin provinces into Baghdad, while restricting their ability to easily store weapons.

Battalion Landing Team 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, found 18 tons of homemade explosives on July 5-6 as part of Operation China Shop II, along with common bomb components such as 48,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and 200 jugs of nitric acid, said battalion commander Lt. Col. Phillip Chandler. Artillery shells and empty propane tanks and chlorine canisters used to case the explosives sat near the chemicals, he said. He and other members of the battalion spoke by telephone from Iraq.

“This was a safe place for insurgents. We obviously wanted to have a presence here before, but we just didn’t have the resources. Now, there is influence in this area,” Chandler said.

Instead of burying the weapons and chemicals, insurgents have been content to lay them out in mostly deserted fields, battalion Marines said, raising concern over the brazenness and comfort insurgents have in the area, as well as the risk of booby trapping or luring Marines into an ambush.

On July 6, members of Weapons Company discovered multiple plastic tarps laid out with a mix of nitric acid and baby formula spread out to dry into a chalky substance, much like C4. The explosive brew was still wet when Marines found it, which means it had been mixed within 24 hours, said Cpl. Jim Morse, who was there when the cache was found. The significance of the baby formula is unknown.

Cone-shaped charges

Marines have also found shaped charges and pressure plate roadside bombs during the sweeps, Chandler said. The charges consisted of plastic cones packed with the nitric acid and baby formula mix, using the shape to focus the explosion. The plastic cones prevent metal detectors from finding the bombs buried in the roads. Also dug into roads, the pressure plate devices use a vehicle’s weight to set off the weapon when it drives over it.

One cache discovered was rigged with tamper devices, but most of the weapons depots were stockpiled for movement and haven’t been stored long, as evident from the lack of dust found on the containers at the sites, India Company commander Capt. James Haynie said. Insurgents are keeping such large stockpiles of weapons for “max survivability en route to other areas of emplacement,” rather than dispersing them, he said.

Marines conducting a vehicle checkpoint on July 11 stopped two 18-wheel tractor-trailers packed with 500 bags of ammonium nitrate weighing 100 pounds each. Although vehicle-born IEDs are known to come from remote areas in northern Anbar province, it appeared the trucks were transporting the common bomb-making supplies.

Driving up to four hours to cover the expansive terrain between patrols, Marines searched houses and talked to locals to try to root out insurgents and their weapons. The locals have yet to live among coalition troops, but are starting to warm to the Marines and Iraqi soldiers, Chandler said.

“Just in the months we’ve been here, we’ve seen movement,” he said. “I was just telling the Iraqi army, we are now seeing farmers going back to their fields and kids playing outside.”

The patrols up north are already showing results down south, Haynie said. “I have heard reports that the number of IEDs reaching cities like Ramadi have slowed down since we have started.”

Working primarily in the rural countryside stands in stark contrast to the congested urban combat many Marines in Iraq face. Morse and Cpl. Jesus Gonzalez, with Weapons Company, both said they have yet to face any insurgent resistance.

The insurgents prefer to scout out the arrival of coalition forces and retreat before Marines arrive, they said.

“There is no resistance at all,” Gonzalez said. “We try not to get complacent, but when we ask the people, they say the [insurgents] left once they heard you were coming.”

Haynie said Marines are not the only ones who need to avoid dropping their guard.

“It’s almost like we are running into insurgent complacency since it’s been a relative place of sanctuary for so long,” he said.