Baghdad Airport Road
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The Baghdad Airport Road is a 12 kilometer (7.5 mi) stretch of highway in Baghdad, Iraq linking the Green Zone to Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). It is sometimes referred to as Route Irish. The passengers are ferried with rhino runners on what often is referred to as the rhino run.
Though most references to "Route Irish" concern the east-west corridor road from BIAP to the International Zone in downtown Baghdad, this is an incorrect label. This corridor is actually two routes: Irish, which runs from the BIAP Entry Control Point (ECP) and curves south past downtown to join Highway 1 (Route Tampa); and Route Aeros, which merges with Irish at the curve and runs into the International Zone.
The section of highway from the Aeros merge to the BIAP ECP is a four-lane road with a 50 meter (165 ft) wide median; the remainder of the route is a four-lane limited access with a high concrete median approximately a meter wide.
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[edit] Name
Route Irish is named after the Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame. Many of the main supply routes (MSRs) and alternate supply routes (ASRs) in and around Baghdad are named after sports teams. Examples of other MSRs in Baghdad with sports-themed names are Route Predators, Route Cardinals and Route Senators.
The name 'Route Irish' has frequently and incorrectly been attributed to the unit which patrolled the route in 2005, the Irish Brigade, or the 69th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard, which is descended from an American Civil War unit composed predominantly of Irish immigrants.
However, Route Irish and the other MSRs and ASRs in Iraq were named during the invasion planning period; long before the 69th began patrolling the route.
[edit] The shootings of the Italians on March 4, 2005
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The military report on the shooting of Nicola Calipari and Giuliana Sgrena explains the procedure for shutting down route Irish to Iraqi traffic, so that it is empty for Coalition convoys.[1] Coalition soldiers are dispatched, without warning, to each of the on-ramps to route Irish, where they establish a roadblock, or blocking point. Their job is to turn back all traffic. As of the date of the incident the soldiers who man the blocking points take no steps to lay out portable speed bump strips, or warning signs.
The on-ramps are overlooked by highrise buildings, which provide potential observation posts for snipers and artillery spotters. Therefore, the soldiers are not supposed to be left in these exposed positions for longer than fifteen to twenty minutes, to deny the resistance forces time to organize an attack.
It also revealed that the equipment the soldiers at the blocking points had for stopping traffic consisted of a green laser pointer, a portable, handheld spotlight, and warning shots from their weapons. They were not equipped with the kinds of sirens and flashing lights an ordinary police vehicle would have. Further the procedure allowed the gunner responsible for firing the warning shots, to also aim the spotlight. In the incident in question the gunner was also responsible for shining the spotlight on the driver, prior to firing warning shots.
The report says that the Italian vehicle was going faster than the other vehicles they had stopped that night. The soldiers had stopped between 15 to 20 vehicles during the hour and a half they had been on station. Several of them had to screech their brakes in order to stop. The gunner had to fire warning shots to warn seven other vehicles which did not respond to the laser pointer and handheld spotlight. The road curved as it approached the on-ramp, preventing the roadblock being visible far in advance.
The report says eleven bullets struck the vehicle, and that 58 bullets had been fired by the gunner that evening. It is not known how many of the other 48 bullets had been fired to warn the other seven vehicles, and how many were fired to warn the Italian vehicle, prior it coming under fire.
[edit] Most dangerous road becomes one of the safest
During OIF III in Late July, the Airport Road section Route Irish transfered from 1-69 Infantry to 6-8 Cavalry, a unit within the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Michael Harris, Airport Road saw a transition from one of the most dangerous roads in Baghdad, experiencing constant IED, Small Arms Fire, and RPG attacks to one of least-attacked roads in Iraq. Soldiers began feeling at ease when traveling on Airport Road, knowing that the soldiers from 6-8 Cavalry were securing the area. By slowing down convoys and having the soldiers on guard be on the lookout, 6-8 Cav successfully took Airport Road from the most dangerous road in the world, to one of the safest roads in Iraq. Comparing the time between April and June of 2005 (the months before 6-8 Cav took over) there were 18 carbombs, 48 IEDs and 80 small-arms attacks and 16 people were killed. After 6-8's takeover, in 3 months there was one 1 death and no IEDs.
[edit] References
- ^ Military report (DOC).
