Operation Northern Fury

A Marine from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, pauses along the side of the road April 15 during Operation Northern Fury, a 48-hour operation designed to take the fight to the enemy in his comfort zone across a perceived safe buffer, the Euphrates River. It was planned and led by the soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Battalion, 1st Division of the Iraqi Army, with some advice from the Military Transition Team, a group of 3/6 Marines tasked with advising the Iraqi Security Forces. The combined patrols made a serious dent in the ability of the anti-Iraqi forces to emplace their deadliest weapon: the improvised explosive device, or IED.“The whole purpose was to deny the area to insurgents,” said 1st Lt. Geoffrey T. Newton, 34, a MTT leader from Oxford, Miss. “It was a show of force by the Iraqi Army.”

This operation was a follow-up to Operation Northern Forge, which we blogged about here.