HIT, Iraq, June 4, 2006 – While training of Iraqi army units in Iraq's Anbar province has lagged behind other regions, progress is being made. A case in point was a June 2 patrol.
It was still more than 100 degrees as Iraqi and American soldiers loaded aboard two Bradley fighting vehicles and a Humvee. The setting sun burned through the dust on the horizon as the vehicles kicked up their own rooster tails of the talcum powder-like soil.
Eight Iraqi soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 7th Division, were to patrol in downtown Hit and conduct a census of military-age males. U.S. officials chose the street because they had captured a sniper there earlier. "We go back periodically because we want them to know we are watching," said Army Capt. Eric Stainbrook, commander of Apache Company, 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry.
Capturing or killing snipers is important to this unit. Their only loss so far has been to a sniper, although they have been hit numerous times by improvised explosive devices.
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http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2006/20060604_5322.html