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Marines yield to civilian drivers in Anbar

As Multi-National Force-West continues to capitalize on security gains in Iraq’s Anbar province, Marine forces have issued guidance to commanders that calls on them to share the road with civilian traffic, even allowing civilian vehicles to pass military convoys.

The common practice prior to early February was for convoys to drive in the center of the road while holding up traffic behind. Troops would use warning shots and deadly force in some cases to control traffic, preventing civilian vehicles from mixing with theirs.

The change, issued by MNF-W senior leadership, comes as troops are moving out of the town of Hit and Camp Blue Diamond is being turned over to the Iraqis within a month. MNF-W moved its headquarters from Camp Blue Diamond last summer to accommodate the turnover.

While MNF-W forces will share the road with civilian traffic, I Marine Expeditionary Force spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Hughes said, forces have “got an absolute right to protect themselves.”

Civilian vehicles will be allowed to pass convoys as long as allowing them to do so doesn’t jeopardize a mission or the safety of military personnel.

“MNF-W is doing some things differently with the Iraqi people that reflects the changing relationship between MNF-W forces and Iraqi civilians, and changes in the way we deal with vehicle traffic is but one,” Hughes said. “We are going to be very careful not to reveal any of our [tactics and procedures] to the enemy, who is still here.”

Sgt. Robert Gamble, with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, based on the outskirts of Ramadi, spends plenty of time on the road doing mounted area reconnaissance nearly every day. He said the new rules created “a pucker factor at first, but it went away quickly.”

“In the past, it hasn’t been the vehicles that drive through blowing us up, anyway,” he said. “It’s been the ones that pull over and wait for us to pass.”

“At least this way, it seems to make the Iraqis a little happier that they can drive through,” he said.

Capt. Kevin Shea, a company commander with 1/8, describes one of the first times he let a civilian vehicle come up next to his — a truck loaded with propane tanks.

“Oh, here we go, this is how it ends,” he remembers thinking. “And every [vehicle commander] in the convoy was thinking the same thing as it rolled past them all. But the vehicle passed without incident.”

MNF-W has seen six vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attacks since February 2007. The low number of attacks has allowed forces in Anbar province to view civilian traffic as friendly until proven otherwise. Marines have recently been issued new, more powerful, optical lasers that they can opt to use to warn traffic off without the risk involved in firing warning shots, officials said.