American occupation of Ramadi


, the capital of Iraq's Al Anbar Governorate, was under U.S. military occupation during the Iraq War. It was a focal point of Iraqi insurgency, which erupted into open armed conflict in 2004 and in 2006, part of the Iraq War in Anbar Province. Operation Murfreesboro was a U.S. offensive in February 2007 intended to cut off the Ma'Laab district of eastern Ramadi from the rest of the town in order to drive out Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
To the north and west, Ramadi is bounded by the Euphrates River, while to the east and south it gradually disappears into suburbs. Ramadi is also the location of the Ramadi Barrage, which diverts water from the Euphrates River into Lake Habbaniyah.
U.S. units were largely restricted to a handful of small bases. The headquarters 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 winter of 2007. At the other end of the stretch of Highway 10 that runs through Ramadi is another Saddam-era palace used as a Combat Outpost by a unit from the Florida National Guard. 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 were based.

Al-Tash refugee camp

Al-Tash was a UNHCR-administered refugee camp in Iraq, described as being outside the city of Ramadi in western Iraq. In 2003, it was described as having 13,000 men, women, and children. In 2003, Human Rights Watch visited the camp, finding that some residents had lived there since as early as 1982, when they had been removed from border areas of Iran occupied by Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War.

March–July 2003

The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment was the first American military unit to reach Ramadi, arriving in early May 2003. The 3rd ACR's headquarters was located at the Rifles Base, which by July had hundreds of laborers from around the world working around the clock to construct a dining hall and recreation area for American forces.
Other American units initially stationed in Ramadi were:
  • Company C, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, which utilized the former presidential palace in Ramadi as its headquarters and faced repeated mortar attacks.
  • Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, Florida National Guard: Initially based downtown at a government building nicknamed "the Mayor's Cell," they were forced to move by a June 2003 local protest. Bravo Company thus relocated to a sandstone palace at the edge of the city.
  • Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, Florida National Guard: Fully occupied and developed the palace grounds to the South of Rifles base, adjacent to the Ramadi Barrage. The Battalion TOC was located here and was called “Hurricane Point” Alpha Company, “Wolfpack” 1/124 INF was also colocated in a barn area within the “Hurricane Point” compound.
  • Bravo Company, 122nd Engineer Battalion, South Carolina National Guard: Also utilized the former presidential palace complex.
  • Delta Detachment, 502d Personnel Services Battalion, provided human resources support to the Regiment while headquartered out of Ramadi.
  • 212th Brigade 2/5th Field Artillery Ft.Sill Oklahoma was in charge of Heavy Artillery support for 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Was positioned at a Baath party university known as Al Anbar university.
Army Specialist Rafael L. Navea from Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, was killed on August 27, 2003 when he was struck and killed by an Improvised Explosive Device left behind his three children and wife Marina. Other casualties from this unit included:
  • Staff Sergeant Paul A. Velasquez from San Diego. He left behind wife Mary, son David, daughter Kristi, his daughter Brianna whom he never met and his mother Mary Elizabeth Velasquez
  • Sergeant Joe Nathan Wilson from Copiah County, Mississippi. In his last act of honor, he saved the life of Joseph Milner, he grabbed Joseph and pulled him tight to his chest as the helicopter was going down. When the noise stopped, Joe asked Sergeant Wilson if he was okay but Sergeant Wilson shakes his head, he later died in a Kuwaiti hospital. He leaves behind wife Erica, a daughter and his mother Maxine Adam's. He was 30 years old when he was KIA.
  • Sergeant Keelan Moss HOUSTON TEXAS was born in little rock and raised in Texas he was one of the 16 soldiers who died while their Chinook was hit by a missile on November 2, 2003 near Fallujah, Iraq. He leaves behind his wife Jennifer Moss and daughter Marjani Natalya. He was 23 years old when he was KIA.
  • Sergeant Ross A. Pennanen Shawnee from Oklahoma. He leaves behind wife Linda and son Gage. He was 36 years old when he was KIA.
  • Sergeant Joel Perez Rio Grande from Puerto Rico. He is survived by his father Edwin Perez and his brothers Elvin, Michael and Leo. He was 25 years old when he was KIA.
  • Specialist Steven D. Conover from Wilmington, Ohio. He is survived by his father Michael Earley and his mother Lorraine Earley. He was 21 years old when he was KIA.

    February 2004 – April 2005

The 3rd ACR departed Ramadi in September 2003, handing it over to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division 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 were augmented by the 2nd Battalion 4th Marines and 3rd Battalion 11th Marines. When 2/4 and 3/11 left in September and October, they handed their sector of Ramadi over to the 2nd Battalion 5th Marines 2nd Battalion 11th marines were also deployed during this time to Ar Ramadi, 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, April 6, 2004. During this time, with most of the 1st Marine Division's resources focused on Fallujah, 2nd Battalion 4th Marines and 3rd Battalion 11th Marines were left with the burden of controlling Ramadi.
For the most part, the four battalions occupying the Ramadi-Fallujah corridor hunkered down and defended what ground they already held along the city's central thoroughfare. The remainder of the month was also costly for insurgent groups: between 800 and 1000 were killed in running battles with the Marines, and the 1–16 Infantry.

April 2005 – April 2006

Marine and Army units in Ramadi rotate on overlapping schedules; thus, just as 1 BCT 1ID arrived well before the 1st Marine Division officially began OIF 2, so the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division 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, the 2-2 ID's five battalions continued the previous units' work until August 2005. In August 2005, a Provisional Infantry Battalion made up of Artillery Marines from 2nd Battalion, HQ 10th Marines & Lima Battery, 3rd Battalion, 10th Marines, took over base security, SASO & Force Protection Operations for Camp Blue Diamond in Ramadi, while also conducting continuous Combat Patrols & House-to-House Searches within the Camps surrounding AO in the Northern part of the City to disrupt enemy activity & recover weapon caches. Squads from 2/10 would also rotate on a regular basis to help support Marine Units tasked with defending al Anbar's Provincial Government Center located within the heart of Downtown Ramadi, a high priority target for the enemy. Convoy Security during transportation of currency & VIP'S to & from the site was also provided by 2/10 Marines. 2/10 was relieved in February 2006 & turned over control to the Army's 1st Battalion, 35th Armor. Eventually, the Iraqi Army's 7th Infantry Division would officially take control of Camp Blue Diamond on May 9, 2006.
In April 2005, HHC and B Company 983 Engineer BN were removed from FOB Speicher in order to support 2ID in construction operations. Quality of life improvements of both American forces as well as ISF. CoB 983 supported many construction operations in East Ramadi as well as Blue Diamond and Hurricane Point.
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, whose only tanks came from one company of the 2–72nd Armor.
The 2–28th BCT was reinforced further in July, with the 2–69th Armor HHC Co., Able Co. and Delta Co, a combat-experienced 3rd Infantry Division unit, being sent to it from Baqubah. The 2–69th Armor remained in Ramadi until January. During September 2005, the 2–28th BCT suffered casualties as insurgent groups were pushed downriver by Marine offensives near Al Qaim and in the area around Haditha. Marine and 3rd Infantry division units that replaced the 503rd and 1/5 were doing the majority of rigorous counter-insurgency in the City center The 3rd Bn 172nd Cav from the VT National Guard was at FOB Ramadi during the Iraqi Election period however their exact rotation dates and mission is unclear to this poster.
Among the Army Combat Support units in Ramadi during this period were 2nd Platoon, 51st Transportation Company from Mannheim Germany, 2nd Platoon, 2nd Military Police Company as well as HHC and B Company, 983rd Engineer Combat Battalion, and US Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5, who greatly improved quality of life and force protection at American and Iraqi camps, as well as providing security and support for the first democratic elections and the subsequently elected government in Ramadi.
The 224th Combat Engineer Battalion served as the Divisional Engineer Battalion, conducting route clearance operations in support of first the 1st Marine Division from January – March 2005, and then to the 2nd Marine Division from March – December 2005, when it was replaced by the 54th Engineer Battalion, a component of the 130th Engineer Brigade, V Corps based in Germany. The 54th remained in Ramadi until October 2006 and suffered six fatalities.