Operation Ithaca - The Fight and An Interview

Posted By Blackfive

I missed the opportunity to interview LTC Poppas of the 5/73 Cav of the 82nd Airborne because I'm on Laura Ingraham's show today.  I'll try to add the link to the transcript when it's published.  LTC Poppas is one of great leaders at the Battalion/Squadron level.  Another right guy in the right place at the right time...

Here is some b-roll of LTC Poppas's paratroopers of 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Team, 82nd Airborne Division, conducting raids as part of Operation Ithaca. Scenes include Soldiers searching abandoned buildings, firing rifles, questioning suspicious citizens, rescuing hostages that had been tortured by Al Qaeda and putting people on helicopters.

And here is b-roll of a Pentagon Channel interview of LTC Poppas (Commander of 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd brigade Team, 82nd Airborne Division) and CPT Dobbins (Bravo Troop Commander of the 5th squadron) about Operation Ithaca, receiving intelligence from local citizens and capturing and killing insurgents during the operation.

The end result of Captain Dobbin's Troop air assault can be found in Bill Roggio's Iraq update in the Weekly Standard:

In Diyala, the fight against al Qaeda and allied insurgent groups has moved beyond the provincial capital of Baqubah. A joint U.S. and Iraqi army operation, dubbed Operation Ithaca, is targeting al Qaeda cells in the villages of Haimer, Abu Nasim, and Jamil. Twenty-nine al Qaeda were killed and 23 captured during Ithaca, while a safe house was destroyed and eight hostages freed.

South of Baqubah, U.S. forces killed six "armed terrorists" while targeting a "weapons dealer linked to the foreign terrorist network in Samarra."

Update:  The transcript of the blogger interview of LTC Poppas is here (PDF file).  Audio link here (MP3).  LTC Poppas discusses the find of hostages and al Qaeda video equipment - they had video taped al Qaeda-style judgments and executions:

...This group of eight had already been found guilty and were to be executed that day of our assault...

[The Blackfive Military Video Channel on YouTube is located here (attacks, memorials, briefings, rescues, and some Guinness.]

[Uncle Jimbo's YouTube Channel is here (for righteous Friday Free-Flys among other things).]

 

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Comments

[Teresa]

Oh good Laura Ingram is on later out here - so I'll have to listen in.

[SemperFi Wife]

When you think about what the idiotic congresscritters are doing as the Surge is going forward....

Cripes, those folks have no shame at all, do they?

[jordan]

Great job on the radio show -- you struck just the right tone, and I hope it causes everybody to seek the troops' true opinions, not what Webb or Graham say their opinions are. Good job. So far no news on Vets for Freedom today.

[thebronze]

Matt,

Heard you on Laura's show this a.m.

Great job!

[Panther Watch]

I was forwarded a link to your site by a family member of an 82nd Airborne officer. While viewing the YouTube vidoe of the OP. Ithaca battle, I was able to see a brief clip of my son (serving with the 5/73rd, C-Trp Recon). I subscribed to your channel and have since included this video in my Blog http://panthers-dad.blogspot.com/.

I appreciate your coverage and will follow your postings regularly, as well as providing a link to your site for my readers.

Panther-Dad, DMHunt