MOSUL, Iraq - Iraqi Police gathered together with their counterparts from the Iraqi National Police and Iraqi Army to conduct a situational update briefing on the morning of May 26th. The meeting place, 3rd Iraqi Police Division's brand new operations center.
The IP realized that they could leverage significant operational gains by having their own operations center to conduct mission planning and tracking with key players from the Iraqi Army and Iraqi National Police.
"[The Iraqi Police] recognize that they need to work together with the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi National Police. To do that, they needed a functional operations center from which they could conduct operations," said Sgt. 1st Class Gene Harding, intelligence team leader for the 3rd IP Div. National Police Transition Team.
The operations center is outfitted with work areas for liaisons from the Iraqi Army and Iraqi National Police as well as personnel for key functional areas such as intelligence and communications. This has given Iraqi Security Forces a unified front for security in Mosul.
"Now that they have a place where they can come together, they are coming together," said Harding. "They are able to plan and coordinate with each other because they are all right there together."
After reviewing a Coalition Forces operations center, Maj. Gen. Muhamad Lateaf, commander of the 3rd Iraqi Police Division, decided it was time to create the same type of atmosphere and further unite the security forces in Mosul.
Construction on the project began April 20. 30 days later, the IP operations center became a reality.
"We are relieved to have such an area to conduct operations and work hand in hand with our IA, INP, and Coalition Forces counterparts," said Lateaf. "We were able to build the operations center through our joint efforts with the Coalition Forces."
The operations center began full scale operations on May 20. Since that time, mission coordination has already reaped rewards for the ISF. According to Harding, in the last week one mission resulted in the capture of a suspected insurgent and another mission uncovered a large weapons cache.
The project had very little CF input. The IP's designed and built the operations center to their specifications and coordinated key pieces of the project themselves.
"They've taken ownership of this since inception. This is 100 percent their operations center," said Harding. "They took ideas from one of our operations centers and made it their own."
Lateaf stated that the operations center will become pivotal for the Iraqi Security Forces as Coalition Forces pull out of the cities at the end of June. Now that he has a base of operations, he is continually looking for ways to improve the operations center and the resources it provides.
"[The operations center] is not perfect yet, but we are developing it every day," said Lateaf. "Each day we will continue to improve on our operations and be more successful. This is just the beginning."
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