Baghdad Belts
Encyclopedia
The Baghdad Belts are the residential, agricultural and industrial areas, as well as communications and transportation infrastructure
that encircle the Iraqi capital
and connect it to other areas in Iraq
. In the Iraq War, they were used by insurgents as staging points for operations in the capital.
In 2006, US forces captured a map hand-drawn by then-al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi which showed Al Qaida placed a high priority on controlling the belts as a means of transporting weapons and fighters as well as providing bases in which to construct bomb-making factories.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
that encircle the Iraqi capital
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
and connect it to other areas in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. In the Iraq War, they were used by insurgents as staging points for operations in the capital.
Location
The belts can be described as the provinces adjacent to the Iraqi capital and can be divided into four quadrants: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. Beginning in the north, the belts include the province of Salah ad Din, clockwise to Baghdad province, Diyala in the North-east, Babil and Wasit in the south east and around to Al Anbar in the west.Strategic value
Between 2004 and June 2007, Al Qaida in Iraq and Shi'ite militias used locations in the Baghdad Belts to supply their combat operations in the capital. According to General Odierno, a top US commander in Iraq, "“Attacks occurring in Baghdad often originate in these outerlying regions."In 2006, US forces captured a map hand-drawn by then-al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab Al Zarqawi which showed Al Qaida placed a high priority on controlling the belts as a means of transporting weapons and fighters as well as providing bases in which to construct bomb-making factories.
Operation Phantom Thunder
Beginning in early 2007, the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, committed three of the five "Surge" brigades to the belts. In June 2007, as part of a country-wide offensive to secure the country, a number of operations were launched throughout the belts:- West of Baghdad - US and Iraqi forces conducted operations around Lake ThartharLake ThartharLake Tharthar, known in Iraq as Buhayrat ath Tharthar , is a lake situated 120 kilometers north of Baghdad between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. It is the largest lake in Iraq. The construction of several dams has made it an important source for irrigation. Its size shrinks and expands...
- North-east of Baghdad - Operation Arrowhead Ripper
- South-east of Baghdad - Operation Marne TorchOperation Marne TorchOperation Marne Torch refers to two operations launched by Coalition forces in 2007 against al-Qaeda in Iraq in the Arab Jabour area of Babil province...
- South of Baghdad - Operation Commando EagleOperation Commando EagleOperation Commando Eagle began on June 21, 2007, when Iraqi and Coalition forces launched a combined ground and air assault operation against al-Qaeda and other extremist terrorists operating in the Mahmudiyah region of Babil province...