Iraqi guard units assuming high profile

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Shemaa Abdul-Ghani's Iraqi National Guard unit conducted its first raid Saturday, giving her a chance to use her combat skills for the first time.

U.S. troops took a back seat during the raid, giving the Iraqis a chance to take control of their future under a sovereign flag.

With an assault rifle slung across her chest and more than 100 rounds of extra ammunition, Abdul-Ghani was one of the first soldiers into a house where a suspected guerrilla lived. Her unit — D Company, 303rd Iraqi National Guard Battalion — was checking a report that a cache of mortars was hidden inside the home.

After the coalition turned over sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government on June 28, American and Iraqi officials started putting an Iraqi face on counterinsurgency operations to win support. Iraqis do most of the work on the joint raids, although U.S. troops still supply heavy firepower to back up the poorly equipped Iraqi troops.

The higher profile carries risks. Seven Iraqi guard soldiers were killed at a checkpoint Saturday near Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, said Dawoud Hussein, a local hospital director. Five other soldiers were injured in the attack, he said.

Guard members also regularly receive death threats from anti-American forces, and some have been assassinated. While a few have quit, most have stayed on the job, wanting to support the new government and collect a badly needed paycheck.

D Company's raid in Baghdad went peacefully and the advantage of having Iraqi troops take the lead was clear.

Instead of U.S. soldiers banging on the door and trying to communicate through an interpreter, the Iraqi troops easily gained entry to the house. Abdul-Ghani, 26, took the women and children in a back room while her Iraqi comrades searched the house.

"When they saw me, the family said, 'Thank God, you will search us,' " Abdul-Ghani said. "They asked me if I was Iraqi or American and I said I was Iraqi and they said, 'Thank God.' "

As Iraqi troops frisked them for weapons, the men in the house smiled and told jokes. When a toddler began crying, one of the soldiers picked the little boy up and carried him around, instantly calming him, something an Iraqi parent would never allow a U.S. soldier to do.

The Iraqi commander eventually found the brother of their suspect. Capt. Mohammed Wahbi al-Satr convinced the man to call his brother and have him come to the house.