THE TENSION: Combat Camera: Operation Northern Exposure Sends Message to Extremists in Iraq

The site of a recent explosion of an improvised explosive device near the canal being searched as part of Operation Northern Exposure in Umm al Abid, Iraq, Sept. 5, 2008. (Photographer: Pfc. Michael Schuch, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division Public Affairs.)

Spc. David Walls, of Detroit, Mich., calls a command to his military working dog as she searches the area for weapons and explosives during Operation Northern Exposure in Umm al Abid Sept. 5, 2008. (Photographer: Pfc. Michael Schuch, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division Public Affairs.)

An Iraqi national police Shurta responds to a question from his commander while providing security for the men searching the canal during Operation Northern Exposure in Umm al Abid Sept. 5, 2008. (Photographer: Pfc. Michael Schuch, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division Public Affairs.)

Spc. Eiburcio Bazante, of Madera, Calif., uses a metal detector to search through a canal as Spc. Paul Paiva, of Pittsburgh, Pa., provides security for him during Operation Northern Exposure in Umm al Abid Sept. 5, 2008. (Photographer: Pfc. Michael Schuch, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division Public Affairs.)

Staff Sgt. Dehan Aquino, of New York City, provides overhead security from atop a berm surrounding the canal during Operation Northern Exposure in Umm al Abid Sept.5, 2008. (Photographer: Pfc. Michael Schuch, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division Public Affairs.)

Dispatches from the Front:

COMBAT OUTPOST CASHE SOUTH, Iraq, Sept. 20, 2008 -- Coalition Soldiers conducted an extensive search through a major canal in Umm al Abid as part of Operation Northern Exposure Sept. 5, 2008.

Soldiers from Companies A and B, 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment initiated the search because the area was used numerous times before for emplacing improvised explosive devices aimed at Iraqi security and coalition forces.

Operation Northern Exposure is in response to extremist activity in the Diyala province and is meant to disrupt support and freedom of maneuver for al Qaida in Iraq and other extremists groups attempting to operate in the area.

After a short link-up with members of the Iraqi national police at Patrol Base Jaguar, the combined element moved 600 meters north to the site of the canal, which spanned four- and-a-half kilometers.

The men split into several groups to quickly scour the canal and surrounding area looking for any disturbances to the land, possible hidden weapons caches or IEDs.

Two soldiers and two Iraqi national police Shurtas entered the heavily overgrown canal with a metal detector as several other soldiers provided overhead security.

Simultaneously, a large group of soldiers and Shurta combed through the brush-covered desert floor.

The men searching the land surrounding the canal discovered numerous perfectly-shaped fighting positions dug into the ground, positioned with a clear view of the road traveling through the area. They determined they had not been used in some time based on the growth of vegetation inside the positions.

The tail section of a rocket was also discovered by a Shurta and was immediately secured by a soldier for disposal by the unit’s explosives ordnance disposal team.

After the first section of canal was searched, Lt. Col. Rich Morales, commander of Task Force 1-35 Armd. Regt, ordered for the overgrown vegetation inside the canal to be burned in order to destroy the weeds used to camouflage weapons and munitions.

“Burning it [the vegetation] sends the message you’re here,” said Morales, a native of El Paso, Texas. “Someone may be watching us now as we operate, or they may not, but if you burn it, they know you were here.”

(Story by Pfc. Michael Schuch, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Public Affairs Office.)