Mediaboss Marketing

The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq has come up with a plan to keep the peace in the war-torn country after the military defeat of ISIS: A "police presence in a box" manned by Iraqi police officers.

The so-called program calls for 100 shipping containers with laptops, furniture, and Land Cruiser vehicles will be set up as makeshift, mobile police stations in Mosul and across five liberated provinces, Canadian Brig. Gen. D.J. Anderson, who is director of partner force development for coalition.

Another 100 "border guard in a box" containers will also go along crossing to Syria.

The $50 million program, paid for by the United States as part of its train and equip program, is designed to give Iraqis the sense of a police and security presence in areas damaged by fighting ISIS, Anderson said. The first two of the shipping containers were delivered this week to Iraqi police training centers.

"The contents can be unpacked and set up quickly to allow the police to immediately begin serving their citizens," he said.

The containers include a tent with a large working space, furniture, lighting, water tanks, laptop computers, phones, GPS equipment, border security equipment, and two Land Cruiser vehicles, according to Anderson.

The police boxes will be rolled out this summer and the 100 border guard boxes will come later.

With ISIS near defeat and cornered in a tiny section of Mosul, the coalition is hashing out plans to shift from military operations with Iraqi forces to what Anderson called "true-blue policing" across the liberated areas of the country.

Continue reading here:
US will use 'police in a box' to secure Iraq - Washington Examiner

More than 300 soldiers with the 1st Infantry Division headquarters will return from Iraq and Kuwait this month starting with a group of more than 180 set to return at 4 a.m. on Friday to Fort Riley.

A group of about 500 soldiers deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, in October. Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin led the deployment after replacing Maj. Gen. Wayne Grigsby as commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley.

The unit worked in a coalition with 23 countries and with other U.S. military branches to support Iraqi troops with intelligence information, logistics, supplies and communication, in the effort to liberate Mosul from Islamic State control.

Since the unit deployed, 1.8 million people were liberated in Mosul, which had been under ISIS control since June 2014. More than 350,000 children have returned to school, 320 schools have reopened and 195,000 internally displaced persons have returned to their homes.

The initial 500 soldiers included rotational forces that deployed to and have already left Iraq and Kuwait, said Jason Roberts, a 1st Infantry Division spokesman. The remaining 300 soldiers will return by the end of July.

The unit is the third division returning to Fort Riley this year. More than 800 soldiers with the 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, returned from Afghanistan in April.

Almost 4,000 soldiers of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, recently returned from the Republic of Korea starting in May.

The entire 1st Infantry Division is expected to be on post for Victory Week, an annual celebration that starts Aug. 21 and features live music and entertainment for military families and the surrounding community.

In another Friday ceremony, Col. John M. Cyrulik will relinquish command to Col. Chris Black after two years in command of the 1st Combat Aviation Brigade at 10 a.m. on the Cavalry Parade Field.

Cyrulik is slated to become the commandant at Citadel Military College in Charleston, South Carolina.

Black comes from Duke University where he served as a fellow in National Security, Strategy and Policy.

Read more here:
1st ID headquarters to return from Iraq - Manhattan Mercury (subscription)

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Hobby Lobby to Return Ancient Artifacts Believed Stolen From Iraq Wall Street Journal (subscription) There was one problem: The items appeared to have been stolen from Iraq, federal authorities alleged, then smuggled into the U.S. from the United Arab Emirates and Israel, bearing labels identifying them as ceramic tiles and Tiles (Sample)..

Here is the original post:
Hobby Lobby to Return Ancient Artifacts Believed Stolen From Iraq - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

When the sales of a classic movie start to fade, the trick pulled by DVD and Blu-Ray manufacturers is to issue a brand new version. Previously unseen deleted scenes, a blooper reel, archived and rarely-seen interviews with the production team theyre all added to a remastered version of the original movie and sold as the definitive version to eager and gullible fans.

This morning I wondered if Sir John Chilcot was perhaps attempting a similar marketing approach to his report into the causes of the Iraq war.

Are sales of his 12-volume opus perhaps flagging, now that the initial excitement of publication day is finally waning? Perhaps Sir John feels understandably frustrated that he was forced to produce his conclusions at a far faster pace than he would have liked, rushing to print a mere seven years after his inquiry was set up.

For to mark the first anniversary of the publication date,...

Continue reading here:
Tony Blair may have had doubts about Iraq, but he made a decision and stood by it. That's leadership - Telegraph.co.uk

Highlights

The Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) extended its Internet connectivity services to the affected community in the CDO Community Centre in Arbat camp. This is the ETCs second Services for Communities (S4C) project in Iraq.

The ETC conducted a mission to Athbah, 15km from west Mosul, to install CMOSS-compliant radio equipment for staff in the new IHP overnight camp within Athbah field hospital compound.

A total of 87 humanitarians have registered to access ETC Internet connectivity services in Domiz and Arbat camps since the beginning of 2017.

More than 1,411 vouchers have been used by the affected population at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Youth Centre and Internet cafe in Domiz camp since the project started in June 2016. This was the ETCs first S4C project.

The ETC is in the process of receiving US$1.47 million from the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund (IHPF), led by the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) and managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to provide services until the end of May 2018.

Situation Overview

People continue to flee Mosul under difficult circumstances, which are exacerbated by high temperatures. Many people living in Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-controlled areas are food insecure and have not had access to safe drinking water and medicines for weeks or months. Humanitarians continue to respond to the extremely fast outflows of people, but the pace and scale of displacement is stretching response capacities. In the past weeks, mass displacement of civilians continues in western Mosul. Since the start of the Mosul operation in October 2016, 678,177 Iraqis have been displaced.

Humanitarian and protection needs remain severe. Where possible, humanitarian partners, including the ETC, are planning to conduct more assessment missions in newly-accessible priority sites to determine needs on the ground.

The ETC is planning to conduct needs assessment missions in the priority camps identified to determine communications needs of humanitarians and later, affected communities.

See more here:
Iraq - ETC Situation Report #43 Reporting period 26/05/2017 to 30/06/2017 - Reliefweb