LC — Partners
A lieutenant and his platoon are conducting a joint patrol with the Iraqi National Police (INP) when they stop a vehicle with two Sunni men in it. When the LT doesn’t allow the INP to detain the two Sunnis, the INP suddenly surround him and his platoon with their crew-served weapons. To make matters worse, the incident is being videotaped by the media crew embedded with the unit. What would you do?
Topics covered:
Partnered operations with host nation
Detainee concerns
Media on the battlefield
Sectarian violence
What’s the Situation?
- The lieutenant and his platoon are carrying out combined operations with the Iraqi National Police (INP) at the height of the Iraq Surge. They have been in country for approximately five months.
- The INPs get a call about a car in the area with two insurgents. The LT’s platoon intercepts the car and begins questioning them.
- The leader of the INP intervenes and states that he is taking the detainees himself. The LT suspects that he is only doing so because the INP leader is Shi’a and the detainees are Sunnis.
- A media crew from the BBC is on-scene, taping everything that is happening.
- The lieutenant forms a cordon around the detainees to protect them. The INP leader surrounds the LT’s platoon and gives orders to his men to fire on the Americans if they don’t hand over the detainees.
