20 April 2010
New Zealand contributes one Defence Force officer as a Military Advisor to support the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), known as TG Iron, Operation Haven.
In addition to New Zealand, Military Advisors come from Australia, the USA, Jordan, Nepal and Denmark.
They provide the link between the UN and United States Force – Iraq (USF-I) and have an increasing role in working with the Iraqi Security Forces as the USF-I draws down. This includes coordinating USF-I support for the UN, such as security, air support, land transport and logistics support. Military Advisors also have a role in future planning with the UN and providing military advice to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General. The New Zealand Military Advisor is based in the International Zone in Baghdad and travels frequently around Iraq.
A month after he arrived in theatre, Lieutenant Colonel Stef Michie experienced election day, Iraqi style.
At 0650 on 7 March election day in Iraq started with a bang—literally.
I was part of the poll-watching visit by Deputy SRSG (Mr Jerzi Skuratowicz of Poland), and was among 15 others waiting for a UH-60 flight at landing Zone Washington inside Baghdad’s International Zone (IZ). Our group included UN security personnel, electoral and political affairs officers and four members of the media from the New York Times, Al Jazeera, BBC and Christian Science Monitor.
This was the first loud bang of the day in Baghdad and while it sounded rather large and rather close it was definitely outside of the International Zone and so at least 1000–1500m away, probably more. With blast walls (aka T-walls) everywhere sound travels in funny ways so it’s very hard to say. It’s worth noting that most of the time people complain about wearing body armour but on polling day I had nothing but envious comments about the excellent body armour that I was issued in New Zealand and which is clearly superior to most types commonly seen. Funny how perspectives change like that.
Our aircraft arrived soon afterwards and we were off to Ramadi and Najaf, north and south of Baghdad respectively. Both locations have seen their share of violence in the past. Security forces in Ramadi have discovered large caches there in recent days and in Najaf a Vehicle Borne IED (VBIED) had exploded the previous day. After 45 minutes in the air we arrived at FOB Ramadi and were briefed by 1st Lt T. Burnette of 3rd Pl, B Coy, 504th Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division.
Lt Burnette, his men and MRAP (Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected Vehicles) were to escort us safely to the polling site and back again. On board his MRAP I was pleased to meet the Joint Tactical Air Controller who informed me we had AH-64 Apaches on station for the move. Very reassuring. The move went smoothly although our Iraqi police escort failed to show, probably due to a small arms fire attack in the centre of Ramadi. We heard about this from our Apaches as they were reassigned to cover that incident. As usual, the fires net (the radio net used to coordinate fire support) is the best informed! The visit went without incident and after some not-so-subtle cat herding to get all the UN staff and media back on board the vehicles we moved back to the LZ and headed to Najaf.
We landed at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Endeavour just outside Najaf and were hurriedly briefed by 1st Lt Ceng of 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division—God Bless the Infantry. This time we had a substantial police escort and moved quickly into the city. On the way into town we passed the famous Imam Ali mosque, an important site for Shia muslims in Iraq and close to the site of the VBIED explosion the previous day. The polling site in Najaf was calm and well-organised and the media enjoyed getting close to the public, conducting interviews, taking pictures etc. All too soon we had to leave and this time some very energetic cat-herding was required to get underway, back to FOB Endeavour and catch our flight to Baghdad.
While there had been some concern about sending the group to Ramadi, it turned out that the vast majority of attacks that day had occurred in Baghdad during our absence—what we heard before we left was merely the kick off to a large number of attacks throughout the morning . Back in the International Zone (IZ) late afternoon, the odd small bang could still be heard and there was some small arms fire in the evening but it was generally calm. I’m told there were a few rockets launched into the IZ but I certainly did not hear them. By 1900 all the United Nations poll-watching teams were back and we could breathe a sign of relief.
While there were some serious attacks during the day and the death toll was over 30 people (almost all civilians simply trying to live their lives and vote), the ballot had been conducted without the spectacular large scale attacks that had been expected. A single death is an unnecessary tragedy but by local standards it could have been far worse. Although there is nothing funny about the violence in Iraq the most noteworthy report of the day can be summarized as follows: ‘Security Forces report that local politician ‘X’ went into a polling station with a concealed weapon [simply for self-protection]. As he left security attempted to stop him and in ensuing scuffle he shot himself in the foot. Enraged, he started firing at security forces who returned fire, a short 2 minute gun battle ensuing. The result was two wounded (the report did not say if the self-inflicted wound was counted).