Bill Roggio

Bill Roggio (a long-time and invaluable blogger on the War on Terror, on “The Fourth Rail") recently traveled to Iraq and started filing reports directly from the field. His new reports are published on a new blog: ThreatsWatch.org. A sample:

From ThreatsWatch:

Today’s meeting was the first attended by the Sulemani, the tribe which sided with al-Qaeda and the insurgency over the summer. The meeting I attended last Monday with Lieutenant Oren and the tribal sheikhs was the first face to face contact with the Sulemani and the U.S. Military, and facilitated their attendance at today’s meeting.

Col Razak chaired the meeting, and was a commanding presence. He stressed the importance of Iraqis being in control and “not allowing any stranger to come here… Terrorists come to this town specifically to use you and the people, and only harm innocent people.” One of the greatest fears of the residents of the region is the premature withdrawal of U.S. and Iraqi forces.

But the locations of the Battle Positions in the Al Qaim region is also a matter of concern. The bases often lie on main roads, near mosques or marketplaces, and the residents are inconvenienced by their locations as travel is often restricted due to the checkpoints. LtCol Alford stressed the importance of the residents of the region and the tribal sheikhs taking responsibility for local security, so the bases can be dismantled in the future. “This will not happen overnight… you must build your government up, establish a police force” before the military units move out, said LtCol Alford. “I believe the first group to leave will be U.S. Forces, then the Iraqi Army. But this will not happen without your help.”

He goes on to describe the search for a weapons cache that the local troops got some information on, and the locals reactions. Good stuff, all of it — and another pair of reliable eyeballs, like Michael Yon, but with yet another valuable perspective. Make ThreatsWatch a regular reading stop…