In one Iraqi village, a taste of what might be

On a recent December morning, Spc. Daniel Jones, a member of the civil affairs team that falls under the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, helped to unwrap an array of goodies in a school classroom set up as a makeshift distribution center.

Scores of residents from Owesat, a village about 15 miles southwest of Baghdad on the west bank of the Euphrates River, showed up to collect the gifts. They included blue, black and red children’s rucksacks, packets of pencils, woolly hats, aloe vera lip seal, key chains with spotlights, and small bottles of shampoo.

“Our job is to try and have them like us a little more,” said Jones, 20, from Walter, S.C. “We ask them, ‘What do you need? How much water do you have? How good is the water?’ ”

Engaging villages like Owesat is a key part of the U.S. military’s strategy to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. By helping to provide basic services, such as medical aid and humanitarian supplies, the military hopes Iraqis will become more tolerant of coalition forces based in their homeland, begin to provide intelligence on militants and cooperate with efforts to create a stable environment.

“We’re just trying to give them a taste of what could happen if they quit turning their heads and stop cooperating with Al Qaeda,” said Capt. Terry Hilderbrand Jr., commander of Company A, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. He spoke at Patrol Base Dragon, an abandoned Russian power plant, where his troops have set up shop across the river from Owesat.

The operation to secure the village, a predominantly Sunni Arab enclave and a known stronghold for Al Qaeda in Iraq militants, began shortly after three local sheiks approached coalition forces requesting that American troops establish a presence there, Hilderbrand said. The sheiks had seen how coalition forces worked with neighboring communities to form concerned local citizens groups that would help safeguard their towns. Coalition forces paid the members of these groups between $10 and $15 a day, and the sheiks wanted in on such a deal, the captain explained.

Sheik Najim Abdallah Sarhan offered to temporarily lease the troops a compound to use as Patrol Base Kemple. It sits within the community, and is less than a mile across the Euphrates from Patrol Base Dragon.

Sarhan’s motivation was simple:

“Hopefully I will get good things from the coalition forces,” he said. His tribe of about 1,500 people needs security, water treatment, food and medical supplies. “I am tired, and everybody is tired. We don’t want any enemies. We want to clear the area of bad people.”

Hilderbrand liked the idea. The new base would allow his troops to establish a footprint on the western side of the Euphrates River. Coalition forces had conducted operations in the area, but had never planted roots there.

More important, Hilderbrand said, it would allow his troops more access to the surrounding desert to conduct their “No. 1 mission” -- continuing the search for two soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division who have been missing since May.

The operation to secure the village began with dropping 4,000 pounds of explosives on an island in the middle of the Euphrates that was known to be an insurgent sanctuary.

As the bombs were being dropped, eight Black Hawk helicopters and two Chinooks launched an air assault, depositing troops on the ground. Accompanied by Iraqi army forces, the American soldiers went door-to-door registering the military-age men of each household, fingerprinting them and taking retina scans.

Meanwhile, U.S. Army engineers began to build a pontoon bridge to connect Patrol Base Dragon to the prospective location of Patrol Base Kemple. The structure was completed within 48 hours. Within 10 days, the troops moved in.

“We are right there, living among the people, so they know we are serious,” said Maj. Curtis Crum, operations officer with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. “Once the population sees that we are committed, more information becomes available.”

The troops conducting the recent humanitarian aid distribution, part of a larger medical assistance mission that was the first to Owesat, were under no illusion that although invited into the village, they would not face hostility.

“This area has been sealed off for some time,” said 1st Lt. Collin Corrigan, a rifle platoon leader for Alpha Company, as his soldiers escorted the convoy of goods to the school. “They’re not used to us being there.”

Local men armed with AK-47 rifles, part of a fledgling group of concerned local citizens, staffed several checkpoints along the route. And although the American soldiers had walked to the school numerous times before, they were keenly aware the path could now be laced with improvised explosive devices.

“It’s easier to get blown up in one of these things,” said Corrigan, 23, of Sadieville, Ky. “It’s always in the back of your mind. But you try to reduce the risks by sending guys ahead.”

The residents were frisked before being allowed to enter the school compound, which comprised half a dozen sparsely furnished ground-level classrooms.

Women wearing black abayas tugged by clinging barefoot children pressed together in a queue as they waited to enter a classroom designated for the medical examination of women and children.

Maissen Hussein showed up suffering from a toothache. Perched on her hip was 4-year-old Obeda Zuher, who had been having gastrointestinal problems.

It was the first time Hussein had been able to seek medical attention in over a year. Owesat has no doctor and only one nurse who can administer injections and prescribe medication, but the village has no medical supplies.

Militant activity and tribal fighting around Owesat prevented Hussein from seeking help in neighboring towns.

Pfc. Louthoria Yazzie, 19, a medic from Juliet, Wyo., examined Hussein and her child. Through an interpreter, she told Hussein to boil the water she and the children drink, and to make sure that all family members wash their hands before they eat.

Owesat has no water purification system. All water is drawn from the Euphrates and nearby canals.

Yazzie also determined that Hussein had a wisdom tooth coming through. The young medic dictated a prescription to the interpreter, who wrote the instructions in Arabic and taped them to Hussein’s abaya.

“We really appreciate the coalition forces coming to help,” said Sheik Abu Mohanad as he watched Lt. Col. Grant Foster of Tiburon, Calif., the battalion surgeon, examine dozens of men and boys. “This operation is a good sign from the coalition.”

Fellow Sheik Abdul Hameed Abbas agreed.

“They are helping us like we are brothers,” Abbas said.

“The sheiks expected help,” said rifle platoon commander 1st Lt. Ted Janis, 23, of West Hartford, Conn. “But before, we would come in, take weapons and leave. Now this shows that we are undertaking the things that we promised the sheiks we’d do.”

In return, his troops are hoping useful intelligence comes flooding in.

Tips from residents have led to the detention of 12 to 18 militants, Janis said.

Hilderbrand, the company commander, wants much more. He pointed out that the area’s sheiks were former insurgent supporters, and that it remained to be seen whether their commitment to cooperate was genuine.

Almost 400 men have volunteered to become part of a new concerned local citizens group, Hilderbrand said. Some are already working at checkpoints, but they are not yet being paid.

“They won’t get paid until the sheiks start producing,” Hilderbrand said. “In my eyes, they are not [concerned local citizens groups] until they do more to weed out Al Qaeda. They are on a temporary trial.”

Sarhan, the sheik who leased out his compound for the new patrol base, acknowledged that in the beginning he sided with the militants. But that was then.

“Now it is time to wake up,” Sarhan said. “It is time to get rid of these people and work with the coalition. We would like to open a new page.”

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ann.simmons@latimes.com