Photo By Staff Sgt. Kimberly Johnson | An Iraqi police officer stands guard Jan. 3 during a room clearing exercise as part of...... read more read more
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BAGHDAD — In an act of terrorism, a church is bombed. Its people held hostage—those who are not already dead from the blasts and gunshots—and the police are called. They perform to the extent of their training—cordon off the area and pull security. But what about what is happening inside?
A need for a Special Weapons and Tactics team in Baghdad is realized.
Soldiers with the 94th Military Police Company, 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, United States Division – Center began training select members of the first Iraqi Police SWAT team, in response to that incident during the fall of 2010 in Baghdad, which, according to The Associated Press, left 58 Iraqi Christians dead and 78 wounded.
“After the incident that happened at the Church of Our Lady of Deliverance,” said Maj. Gen. Sabah al-Shably, head of Baghdad patrolling police, “we realized Iraq needed a SWAT team to deal with that kind of situation—a hostage situation. What’s going on here in Iraq—what has happened before, with the church or other terrorist attacks—can happen again. The best way to deal with a situation like that, has to be a SWAT team that is high-tech and always ready.”
Sgt. Nicholas Laganas, a military police officer with the 94th MP Co., 2nd AAB, 1st Inf. Div. and a Lowell, Mass., native, said during the hostage situation at the church, there were Iraqi police officers all around, but they did not know what to do. They did not have the training needed to handle the hostage situation.
“That was a perfect opportunity for the Baghdad Police Advisory Team to establish a SWAT team,” Laganas said. “With the help of Maj. Gen. Sabah, here at the police headquarters, and the whole BPAT, we’ve been working with select SWAT trainees for the past month. Little by little, we’re getting there.”
Spc. Albert Barnes, a military police officer with the 94th MP Co., 2nd AAB, 1st Inf. Div. and an Oxford, Conn., native, said the purpose of a SWAT team is to conduct operations necessary for capturing people who pose a threat to the security of Iraq and to diffuse hostage situations.
Laganas said the significance of training the selected Iraqi Police officers as a SWAT team, versus training the Iraqi Army, is that the IA is trained in heavy weaponry and the IP officers eventually will be the ones patrolling the streets.
“If we can get the Iraqi Police to start working as a SWAT team to take care of the hostage [rescue] situations, that’s what we need to do,” Laganas said, “because the future of Iraq lies within the Iraqi police force.”
The American soldiers pooled their experience and created a training program that includes physical fitness, classroom learning and practical exercises.
“Every morning we start the day with physical training,” Laganas said. “Then, we work our way into classroom learning and into practical exercises using the crawl, walk and run stages of learning. We try to drive into the trainees that slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”
Barnes said the SWAT trainees are highly motivated for the training and are proud of being the first SWAT team ever in Iraq.
“The Iraqis are very eager to learn,” Laganas said. “Every day they come out screaming our names, ready to [work]. They don’t go through the extensive training like Americans do in the [United] States as police officers, so we all do our best to teach them everything we know.”
The training is scheduled for at least three times per week for about two months, and every minute counts.
Once the American forces withdraw from Iraq, the responsibility for continuing SWAT training will be the Iraqi Police force, alone.
“The BPAT has a lot of stock in this SWAT team, because they’re going to be patrolling the streets right away,” Laganas said. “We need to make sure we train them the best we can, because lives are at stake.”
| Date Taken: | 01.14.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 01.14.2011 08:01 |
| Story ID: | 63531 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 356 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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