Baghdad Airport Road

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Baghdad International Airport and the Green Zone

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), which became prominent after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It is sometimes referred to as Route Irish. The passengers are ferried with Rhino Runner buses 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.

1 Name
2 2004 Good Friday Attacks
3 The shootings of the Italians on March 4, 2005
4 References
5 External links

[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.

[edit] 2004 Good Friday Attacks

On April 9, 2004, PFC Keith "Matt" Maupin's fuel convoy came under attack near the Baghdad International Airport. In what was described as a 5-mile long ambush, the 26-vehicle convoy was hit repeatedly by gunfire, mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, disabling many of the civilian fuel tankers and US Army vehicles. After the remnants of the convoy reached safe ground it was learned that around ten soldiers and civilian KBR contractors were wounded while one soldier and a civilian driver had been killed in the battle. PFC Maupin was among the nine people unaccounted for – seven civilians and two soldiers. One of the missing civilian drivers, Thomas Hamill, had been taken hostage during the ambush and escaped his captors on May 2, 2004. The bodies of five other civilians and the second soldier were subsequently recovered. All are thought to have been killed in the ambush. Civilian driver Timothy Bell remains missing and is presumed dead since he never appeared in a hostage video.

[edit] The shootings of the Italians on March 4, 2005

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Main article: Rescue of Giuliana Sgrena

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 terrorist 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 47 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.