Michael Yon's latest report on the Battle for Baqubah

Michael Yon's report offers a fascinating glimpse of the social setting for the Iraq War. Al Qaeda exploits the sectarian divide, and our side tries to minimize the effects.

Yon covers everything from the effort to minimize civilian casualties to the attempt to jump-start civil services--and it's far from dry.

clipped from www.michaelyon-online.com

IA soldiers with the Mayor of Baqubah (on the right).

Before the Battle for Baqubah (Operation Arrowhead Ripper), thousands of refugees had streamed out of Baqubah and the surrounding towns. I’ve heard Iraqis throw around a number of 17,000 IDPs [Internally Displaced Iraqis], although I have no idea how accurate that is, if at all. Two weeks after the start of Arrowhead Ripper, 3-2 SBCT was tracking just over a thousand IDPs, and since I shared a tent with the soldiers who did most of the counting (C-52), I put stock in that number and believe it to be roughly accurate. I saw many of the IDPs with my own eyes.

Some of the fleeing families had kept out of the sun by moving inside Baqubah’s electrical plant. The plant had been captured by C-52, a group of 54 soldiers who have fought all over Iraq. I accompanied C-52 on the night of 19 June.
(read more, from the beginning)