Ramadi

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Coordinates: 33°25′11″N, 43°18′45″E
Ramadi (Arabic: الرمادي‎) Ar Ramādī
Saddam Mosque
Ramadi Ramadi's location inside Iraq
Country	Iraq
Governorate	Al Anbar
Population (Estimate)
- City	400,000

This article is about the city. For the district, see Ramadi (district).

Ramadi (Arabic: الرمادي‎; BGN: Ar Ramādī) is a city in central Iraq, about 100 kilometers (62.1 mi) west of Baghdad. It is the capital of Al Anbar province.

During World War I British forces under General Maude fought there in November 1917.

Ramadi is considered to be the southwest point of Iraq's Sunni Triangle. It has been a focal point of resistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Because it hosts the main railway line into Syria, it has long been suspected by American commanders of being a staging area for insurgents.

Ramadi's population numbers around 400,000.

1 People
2 Wartime Military Control
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] People

Most inhabitants are Sunni Muslims from various tribes, most of which are part of the the Dulaim tribe confederation.

[edit] Wartime Military Control

[edit] Description of the city

To the north and west, Ramadi is bounded by the Euphrates River, while to the east and south it gradually disappears into suburbs. With a population of more than 400,000, the city is too large for the U.S. and Iraqi military presence to dominate on a day-to-day basis; thus, although the area of the city actually controlled by insurgents has ebbed and flowed since U.S. forces first arrived in April 2003, U.S. units have always been largely restricted to a handful of small bases, where they have endured shelling and sniper fire of varying intensity. The largest base, in the northern corner of Ramadi, is on the grounds of one of two Saddam-era palaces in the city; known first as Tactical Assembly Area Rifles and later as Camp Blue Diamond, this base was turned over to the Iraqi Army in the spring of 2006. At the other end of the stretch of Highway 10 that runs through Ramadi is another Saddam-era palace, named the Combat Outpost by its first American residents (Florida National Guardsmen). Several smaller buildings along Highway 10 between the two larger bases are routinely occupied by U.S. and Iraqi units, and just outside the city there are a number of other, less dangerous and better equipped camps, where an Army brigade headquarters and its support units are based.

[edit] March 2003 - February 2004

City view from Ramadi Hospital (Florida National Guard)

During the Iraq War, from the end of "major combat operations" on May 1, 2003 into early 2004, Ramadi was occupied by units of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (3rd ACR), which was headquartered there and was responsible for a wide swathe of Western Anbar Province, and by attached units from the 296th medical company from Arkansas,2-325th Airborne Infantry and the Florida National Guard's 1-124th Infantry. During the 3rd ACR's stay in Ramadi, during which it established training posts for the fledgling Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (later Iraqi National Guard) and the Iraqi Police, casualties were relatively light. 3rd ACR fell under the command of the 82nd Airborne Division, which was responsible for Anbar Province until the transfer to the 1st Marine Division in March 2004.

During this period of time 1-124th Infantry was responsible for the most of Ramadi's AO (area of Operations), including the central area. 3rd ACR controlled other sectors to the west of Ramadi. The Florida guard conducted most of the city patrols and manned many obsevation posts located throughout the city. The Battalion received many casualties but none were fatal. Most of them were due to IEDs and firefights with the insurgents.

[edit] February 2004 - April 2005

1BCT 1ID Soldiers during OIF 2

The 3rd ACR departed Ramadi in September 2003, handing it over to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division (1st BCT, 1st ID) of Fort Riley, Kansas; however, until March, the 1st BCT fell under the command of the 82nd Airborne Division. In March, the 1st Marine Division deployed to Anbar, replacing the 82nd. While Army units in Iraq complete year-long tours, Marine units stay for seven months; in Ramadi, one Marine battalion typically augments an Army brigade. During the first half of 2004, 1st BCT's two battalions (1-16th Infantry, 1-34th Armor) were augmented by the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines. When 2/4 left in August, they handed their sector of Ramadi over to the 2nd Battalion 5th Marines, who completed their tour in April 2005, then 1st Battalion 5th Marines took over.

The spring of 2004 was particularly bloody in Ramadi. In the opening days of the rebellion that began in April 2004, and which was dominated by the siege of Fallujah, 2/4 suffered one of the deadliest attacks of the war, losing 12 Marines in a single day. During this time, with most of the 1st Marine Division's resources focused on Fallujah, 1-16 Infantry was left with the burden of controlling Ramadi; for the most part, the four battalions occupying the Ramadi-Fallujah corridor (including the insurgent den of Khaldiyah) hunkered down and defended what ground they already held along the city's central thoroughfare. The remainder of the month would also prove costly for insurgent groups, as between 200-300 would be killed in running battles with the Marines, and the 1-16 Infantry.

[edit] April 2005 - April 2006

Marine and Army units in Ramadi rotate on overlapping schedules; thus, just as 1 BCT arrived well before the 1st Marine Division officially began OIF 2, so the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (2-2 ID) arrived in August 2004, while the 1st Marine Division was still in charge of Anbar. Working first with the Marines from 2/5 and later with their replacements, 1/5 (who in turn were replaced by the 3rd Battalion 7th Marines (3/7)), the 2-2 ID's three battalions (the 1-9th Infantry, 1-503rd Infantry, and 1-506th Infantry) continued the previous units' work until August 2005. During this period the brigade and the Marine battalions that worked with it continued to suffer steady casualties. Unlike the mechanized 1BCT 1ID, 2-2 ID was mostly a light-infantry brigade (1-9 Infantry is a mechanized infantry battalion), whose only tanks came from one company (Death Dealer Company) of the 2-72nd Armor.

[edit] April 2006 - present

2-2 ID was replaced by the Pennsylvania National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division (2-28th BCT). When it arrived in August 2005 beside the Marines of 3/7, the 2-28th BCT came equipped for heavy fighting; it brought five battalions rather than three (3-103rd Armor, 1-104th Cavalry, 1-109th Infantry, and 1-110th Infantry, 1-172nd Armor), all of which were "heavy" units equipped with tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. The 2-222nd FA from the Utah Army National Guard provide counterfire, base defense and route security as well, firing over 4,000 rounds of artillery during the one year tour. They were the first National Guard unit to fire the Paladin weapon system in combat operations. During September 2005, the 2-28th BCT suffered casualties as insurgent activity was pushed downriver by Marine offensives near Al Qaim and in the area around Haditha. As a result, the 2-28th BCT was soon reinforced further, with the 2-69th Armor, a battle-hardened 3rd Infantry Division unit, being sent to it from Baqubah. The 2-69th Armor remained in Ramadi until February.

In March 2006, as 3rd Battalion 8th Marines arrived to replace 3/7, violence again began to escalate in Ramadi, with U.S. casualties spiking. With the 2-69th gone, the 2-28th BCT was again reinforced to help damp the insurgent activity, this time by the 1-506th Infantry, a newly arrived unit of the 101st Airborne Division that was transferred to Ramadi from Baghdad's Sadr City. During March 2006 two soldiers from the 75th Ranger Regiment were killed in Ramadi, possibly indicating that elements of the secretive Task Force 145 (which later helped to kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi) were present in the city. Additionally, at least 200 insurgents were killed by Army Ranger and 101st Airborne units during the month of April.

As the summer of 2006 arrived, the level of insurgent violence in Ramadi remained the highest in the country, on some days accounting for nearly half of all insurgent attacks in Iraq; as a result, rumors of an impending Fallujah-style assault sprang up in the Arab media.

In early June 2006, 2-28th BCT completed its year long deployment and the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division was shifted from Tal Afar in Northern Iraq to replace the departing Pennsylvanian National Guardsmen. 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment remained in Tal Afar. To reinforce the 1st BCT, 1st Armored Division General Casey ordered the deployment to Ramadi of two of his three strategic reserve battalions (the 1-6th Infantry and 1-35th Armor, both from the 2nd BCT, 1st Armored Division in Kuwait.)

On June 18, 2006, the 1st BCT, 1st Armored Division launched its offensive. Despite fears that the assault would be a repeat of the Marine offensive in Fallujah, the brigade took a different approach, discouraging residents from fleeing and moving in slowly with much more limited use of heavy weapons such as Abrams tanks,artillery, and close air support. As the offensive opened, two columns of U.S. mechanized troops pushed north into the city's suburbs with Iraqi Army units, cutting off two major entrances to the city for the first time during the war; meanwhile, 3rd Battalion 8th Marines held onto the western half of the downtown area and patrolled the river and its two bridges (the only northbound exits from the city) on foot and in boats, and the 1-506th Infantry, 1-6th Infantry, and 1-35th Armor continued to hold the main thoroughfare and the eastern exits. As the operation began, there was controversy over the number of refugees who left the city despite the U.S. military's assurances that the offensive would be of a very different character than the Fallujah assault of 2004. Several hundred insurgents have been reported killed since the beginning of the June 18 offensive. ^[1]

As of Jan. 15th, 3RD Infantry Division 1st Brigade arrived in Ramadi for support of the Armor and Infantry units that Are currently in position. 3/69 Armor Regiment being one of the Battalions, will be taking place of 1/37 Armor Regiment in thier tasks and Duties. Thus far they have taken over the Ramadi area only soon to move across the river to Blue Diamond to take over for 5/7 Cavalry for a short period of time. Fighting along side of them would be E Co 3rd Brigade Support Battalion, running Maint. and Supply runs out to many of the Combat outposts everyday and night. There have been very few Fatalities from either unit opposed to the many to come over in the past although the 3rd Infantry Division patch is also know as the Death Patch (Or Later known to those who are in the unit as the Broken TV Screen.) So far it seems that this go around they will be the clean up crew for the upcoming President soon trying to pull troops out of Iraq.

Reference: Soldiers Actually in the Unit.