Baghdad Airport Road
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The Baghdad Airport Road is a 12 kilometer stretch of highway in Baghdad, Iraq linking the Green Zone to Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). It is sometimes referred to as Route Irish.
Though most references to "Route Irish" concern the east-west corridor road from BIAP to the International Zone in downtown Baghdad, this is an incorrect label. This corridor is actually two routes: Irish, which runs from the BIAP Entry Control Point (ECP) and curves south past downtown to join Highway 1 (Route Tampa); and Route Aeros, which merges with Irish at the curve and runs into the International Zone.
The section of highway from the Aeros merge to the BIAP ECP is a four-lane road with a 50 meter wide median; the remainder of the route is a four-lane limited access with a high concrete median approximately a meter wide.
Between 1 November 2004 and 12 March 2005, there were 135 attacks or hostile incidents that occurred along Route Irish. These included 9 complex attacks (i.e., a combination of more than one type of attack, e.g., an IED followed by small arms fire or mortars), 19 explosive devices found, 3 hand grenades, 7 indirect fire attacks, 19 roadside explosions, 14 rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), 15 vehicle borne explosive devices, and 4 other types of attacks. The attack density for the period 1 November 2004 to 12 March 2005 is 11.25 attacks per mile, or a minimum of one attack per day along Route Irish since November. The highest concentration of IED attacks occurs at 1000 hours, with the second highest concentration of attacks occurring at 1600 hours. These times correspond to convoys departing from or arriving at the Victory Base complex, the largest Coalition military facility in Baghdad. Approximately 66 percent of all night time attacks along Route Irish occur between the hours of 1900 and 2100. The incident at BP 541 occurred between 2030 and 2100 hours on 4 March 2005.
[edit] Name
The name 'Route Irish' has frequently been associated with the Irish Brigade, as the 69th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard - a unit that is descended from an American Civil War unit composed predominantly of Irish immigrants - was assigned to patrol the route in 2005.
However, this is an incorrect association, since many of the main supply routes (MSRs) and alternate supply routes (ASRs) in and around Baghdad are primarily named after sports teams. Route Irish is actually named after the Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame. Examples of other MSRs in Baghdad with similar names are Route Predators, Route Cardinals and Route Senators.
[edit] The shootings of the Italians on March 4, 2005
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The military report on the shooting of Nicola Calipari and Giuliana Sgrena explains the procedure for shutting down route Irish to Iraqi traffic, so that it is empty for Coalition convoys.[1] Coalition soldiers are dispatched, without warning, to each of the on-ramps to route Irish, where they establish a roadblock, or blocking point. Their job is to turn back all traffic. As of the date of the incident the soldiers who man the blocking points take no steps to lay out portable speed bump strips, or warning signs.
The on-ramps are overlooked by highrise buildings, which provide potential observation posts for snipers and artillery spotters. Therefore, the soldiers are not supposed to be left in these exposed positions for longer than fifteen to twenty minutes, to deny the resistance forces time to organize an attack.
The military report revealed that Ambassador John Negroponte had, inexplicably, left the soldiers staffing the blocking points in their exposed positions for almost an hour and a half at the time of the shooting.
It also revealed that the equipment the soldiers at the blocking points had for stopping traffic consisted of a green laser pointer, a portable, handheld spotlight, and warning shots from their weapons. They were not equipped with the kinds of sirens and flashing lights an ordinary police vehicle would have. Further the procedure allowed the gunner responsible for firing the warning shots, to also aim the spotlight. In the incident in question the gunner was also responsible for shining the spotlight on the driver, prior to firing warning shots.
The report says that the Italian vehicle was going faster than the other vehicles they had stopped that night. The soldiers had stopped between 15 to 20 vehicles during the hour and a half they had been on station. Several of them had to screech their brakes in order to stop. The gunner had to fire warning shots to warn seven other vehicles which did not respond to the laser pointer and handheld spotlight. The road curved as it approached the on-ramp, preventing the roadblock being visible far in advance.
The report says eleven bullets struck the vehicle, and that 58 bullets had been fired by the gunner that evening. It is not known how many of the other 48 bullets had been fired to warn the other seven vehicles, and how many were fired to warn the Italian vehicle, prior it coming under fire.
[edit] References
- ^ Military report (DOC).
