Word: battalion
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That mission may become a greater challenge within the parameters of the pact. Vermeesch and his battalion are based in a former Shi'ite militia hot spot, which promises only more sectarian tensions as Sunni families who fled the town begin to return to their old neighborhoods, which remain dominated by the Shi'a. Attacks are much fewer than last year but still average one a day, Vermeesch says. Now, under the security agreement, U.S. forces can no longer carry out a raid, search, cordon or even a patrol without their Iraqi counterparts. In the past two weeks, four minor...
...going to be zero difference between what we do now and Jan. 1 and beyond," said Lieut. Colonel John Vermeesch just before the end of 2008. Vermeesch commands some 880 U.S. combat troops spread across five joint Iraqi-U.S. bases in northwest Baghdad. He is one of the battalion commanders in the 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, a 4,000-troop force that arrived in Baghdad in mid-October to start a 12-month tour. They say they started complying with the new agreement over a month ahead of schedule, coordinating their movements with Iraqi forces...
Meanwhile, Israeli ground forces seemed to be mobilizing for a fight. Two hours before the Apaches opened fire, some seven Merkava tanks gathered 10 miles north of the hilltop, right next to Erez crossing to the Gaza Strip. They were part of a full battalion of 35 tanks, ready to penetrate the northern part of the Gaza Strip as part of a ground operation. The soldiers were awaiting orders...
...other big loser from Thursday's Hebron riots may be the Palestinian Authority (PA) of President Mahmoud Abbas. Last month, a U.S.-trained battalion of the authority's security men was deployed in Hebron to great fanfare, underscoring Abbas' intention to assert control of a city whose political sympathies are with the militant Hamas movement. As settlers rampaged through Palestinian neighborhoods on Thursday night, Palestinian civilians were crying out for protection from those meant to ensure their security. But the PA security forces were nowhere to be found, under strict orders from their commanders to avoid confrontation with the settlers...
...Russian Army and, until recently, a member of the Duma, was dismissed as the Chechen regional head of Putin's United Russia Party. His brother Sulim, also a hero of Russia and a Lieut. Colonel of the Russian Army (and until recently commander of the Spetsnaz Vostok battalion in Chechnya), was stripped of his command and placed under investigation by Moscow under Kadyrov's pressure. The killer shot Ruslan point-blank in downtown Moscow, penetrating an armor-plated car by way of a slit in a window while the Chechen leader was on his way out of the Kremlin, where...