From a family member of one of our office staff:

I've had a couple people ask me what is going on over here. I guess Baghdad has been on the news lately. Well, it has been hot; really hot. I haven't sent an e-mail out in a while because we've been busy; really busy. I think I spent close to 70 hours outside the wire in the last 7 days. That's time out the gate, and doesn't include planning/prepping/maintenance time that takes place on the FOB. I didn't want to spend that much time out there because it really wears us out and we're not as sharp, but bad things keep happening and we needed to spend that much time out there.

So whether or not this is a civil war has been a point of controversy I guess. All I can tell you is what my exerperiences are in my little sector of Baghdad. I guess Sadr City has been on the news a lot. Its a slum portion of Baghdad approximately 6 to 7 kilometers from where I live. What goes on there, I don't know. I hear that stuff on the news just like you all. Americans don't go to Sadr City anymore. It is controlled and policed by the Iraqi Army.

I've been getting a lot of informants that tell me about false traffic control points where militia members will wait on the side of the road and stop cars to kidnap or kill people. In most cases in my sector, it has been reported as sectarian violence where it is Shi'ia militiamen killing Sunni local nationals. Additionally, reports also tell us that many of the Iraqi Policemen are in on it, and/or turning their head and letting it happen. I believe, and have lots of evidence to support it, that many militiamen are actually police officers. This status gives them freedom of manuever with weapons and also allows them the ability to arrest and/or kill anyone that is working against them. I had an informant at the gas station where the militia show up everyday, he called me everytime the militia was there; he got arrested last week for no reason.

I tell you all that to tell you this. A couple days ago I was on patrol and pulled up to a traffic checkpoint where there had never been a traffic checkpoint before. There were 6 guys on the ground in military style uniforms all armed with AK-47s. It looked suspicious. As I got out of the truck I noticed there was a dead body on the ground next to the men. I asked them for their Police Identification Cards. They didn't have them. We immediately disarmed them. They put their weapons down real quick, which guilty people usually do because they know we'll smoke them otherwise.

Usually people that are legitimate are more reluctant to put their weapon down. They claimed they were Iraqi National Police from a brigade that didn't operate in this sector. They had no communication with higher, no Identification, no official police vehicle, were out of their sector if they were police, and had their weapons locked and loaded rather than on amber status as they should have. Additionally , the dead body - by the blood I could tell he had been shot very recently. It was an execution style killing - a single shot that entered under his chin and went through the top of his head. The dead guy had handcuffs on one hand and no identification, but he did have Iraqi money in his pocket. I don't know how much you all watch CSI, but I think you all get my drift about how guilty these guys were. I arrested them all. They got released the next day. Their Iraqi General swore up and down they were legitimate and created some elaborate story explaining how all the things that were wrong were simply circumstantial. It's hard to get rid of sectarian violence when corruption runs that high.

I will also tell you that one of the other platoons in my Squadron found a mass execution site the other day. 27 dead bodies, all Shi'ia, who had been shot execution style. Civil War? Maybe genocide is more appropriate. I just don't understand these things.

My platoon had had some close calls recently. We've been getting shot at a fair amount. Driving down the road the other day we had some rounds whizz by us. We went to their point of origin, a couple houses down the road, and started to clear the houses. Four guys took off running through the elephant grass.

Because of the Rules of Engagement, we can't just shoot them in the back even though we know they are guilty. We have to catch them in the act of showing hostile intent. We tried chasing them down, and I'm fairly athletic, but with over 100 lbs. of gear on, even the fattest slowest Iraqi is going to beat you in a race through elephant grass. We searched the houses and found canisters to 155mm artillery round (commonly used in IEDs) in one of the houses. The old man that was at the house said they were used to transport kerosene.... such bullshit. We tossed his house looking for more contraband, preferably the actual rounds rather than just the canisters. Didn't find anythi ng.

The next day we almost got blown up by an IED, it had a crushwire initiator attached to a 155mm artillery round. My lead vehicle was paying attention and stopped 10 feet short of the crushwire initiator. I'm putting the driver in for a medal. It was on a road that only my platoon travels. It was specifically targeting us.

Thats all I have time for now. Sorry this e-mail isn't as humorous as the previous. Hopefully I'll have time to laugh about some of the stuff that has been happening by the time I write the next e-mail. Thanks for all the support.