Marines: The War on the Water in Iraq

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July 22, 2006: Iraq has established a river patrol unit to bring some law and order to the Tigris river, that runs past Baghdad. The new unit, with five boats, will patrol 60 kilometers of river, and look for terrorists using the river to move men and weapons. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps already have some riverine units operating in Iraq, and more American river patrol boats are coming. With the growing size and capability of the Iraqi security forces, it has become increasingly dangerous for terrorists to use the roads. So the rivers have become the favored transportation route, at least according to captured documents and interrogations of captured terrorists. The American river patrols have run into some resistance, and seized a number of terrorists, and their boats.