U.S. military's workspace to 'mirror' Iraq's in Baghdad joint operation command Monday, June 22, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
BAGHDAD — The U.S. Army has put the finishing touches on a joint operation center in Baghdad.
Military officials said the JOC would serve both Iraqi operations as well as joint missions with the U.S.-led coalition in the Baghdad area.
"Our workspace will mirror their workspace, even down to how many desks are in each office," Maj. Kevin Wallace, executive officer, of the U.S. Army's 46th Engineer Combat Battalion, said.
[On June 20, at least 70 people were killed and 200 injured when a truck bomb was detonated outside a Shi'ite mosque outside Kirkuk. The casualty toll was said to be the highest since two suicide bombings exploded outside a Shi'ite shrine in Baghdad on April 24. In the April bombings, 71 people were killed.]
Officials said the center would serve as headquarters for the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment as well as the 11th Iraqi Army. They said construction of the facility was completed on June 19.
"In order to be more hands-on, we must share everything including workspace," Wallace said.
The joint facility was established as part of the Status of Forces Agreement, which went into effect in January 2009. Under the accord, the U.S. military would withdraw from all Iraqi cities by June 30 in the first step of a full combat troop withdrawal by 2012.
The U.S. military has handed over more than 140 facilities to the Iraqi government. They included combat outposts and joint security stations throughout Baghdad.
As a result, the U.S. Army has been relocating bases outside the Iraqi capital. JOC, located in an abandoned warehouse hangar, would comprise 4,300 square feet, or more than 2,500 square meters.
The facility would contain 10 secured offices and a tiered conference room with computer workstations and a combined working area for battle tracking. Currently, the staff has been confined to two small offices.
"Every day the Iraqi general comes over asking if we need any help," U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Gary Butler, the officer in charge of construction, said. "He even let us borrow his pressurewasher and a few of his soldiers to help clear the surface of debris anddirt before we began construction."
On June 20, the U.S. Army transferred a Joint Security Station in Baghdad's Sadr City, long a bastion of Iranian-sponsored Shi'ite insurgents. The station was the third U.S. base in Sadr City transferred to Iraqi control this month.
"Today this base returns to its true owner," U.S. Maj. Gen. Daniel Bolger, the commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division, said. "The activities of the enemy were much higher in the past years and as the enemy activity has dropped and the Iraqi army has gone stronger, and the Iraqi people have grown more secure, it's a good time for the United States to step back and to take more of a supporting role."