The Battle for Saba’ al-Bour
BY Herschel Smith
18 years ago
Once a peaceful and mixed Sunni-Shi’ite town eighteen miles northwest of Baghdad, Saba’ al-Bour with its dense population and canals has become the cornerstone of the Mujahideen strategy. Having re-entered the town, U.S. forces are seeing success, but the Iraqi army is still not ready to take handoff in hard core areas of Iraq.
On October 16, the Iraqi government announced an increase in teacher’s salaries, noting that assistance would be provided to the families of teachers who had been expelled from Saba’ al-Bour. They noted that they had observed an increase in terrorist activities in Saba’ al-Bour, but in fact this escalation had begun much sooner, and has been going on long enough to cause the effective evacuation of the city.
A buildup of the insurgency began a few months earlier. A jihadist web site is reporting that jihadist forces clashed with U.S. forces on Friday, June 10, in Saba’ al-Bour. On June 16th, a mortar barrage killed two people and wounded sixteen in Saba’ al-Bour.
But there has been a significant increase in the level of hostile activities in the area, especially over Ramadan. On Wednesday, October 11, a Black Hawk Helicopter was downed, and the Mujahideen Shura Council claimed responsibility. This group is composed of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Victorious Army Group, the Army of al-Sunnah Wal Jama’a, Jama’a al-Murabiteen, Ansar al-Tawhid Brigades, Islamic Jihad Brigades, the Strangers Brigades, and the Horrors Brigades, collaborating to meet the “unbelievers gathering with different sides
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