The CENTCOM Newsletter for the week of 28 November 2005 can be found here.  Among the stories covered this week:

Kandahar, Afghanistan — Operation Atal Wali, or Operation Heroic Success, set a new benchmark for training for Afghan National Army Soldiers in Kandahar and, for that matter, the country of Afghanistan.  Soldiers from the 1st Kandak, 2nd Brigade, 205th Corps, took part in a nine—day validation training exercise Nov. 12—20 at Kandahar Airfield and Camp Sherzai, the first such exercise ever conducted with the ANA.

Zabul Province, Afghanistan — Qalat Provincial Reconstruction team members donated two medical clinics to the different districts in the Zabul Province in November.  On Nov. 12 Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen attached to the PRT held an opening ceremony for a medical clinic in the district of Mizan.  'We are donated the clinic in Mizan to Ibn Sina,' said Army Capt. Roberta Smith, public affairs representative, 492nd Civil Affairs Battalion.  'Ibn Sina will supply staff and monitor the daily operations of the clinic.'

Camp Arifjan, Kuwait — During a formal military Change of Command ceremony in the Kuwaiti desert, Navy Capt. Catherine A. Wilson assumed command of U.S. Military Hospital Kuwait from Navy Capt. Jack E. Riggs.  Capt. Wilson is commanding officer of Expeditionary Medical Facility (EMF) Kuwait, Camp Pendleton Detachment (CP Det.), and Capt. Riggs is commanding officer of Expeditionary Medical Facility Dallas.  During his remarks, Capt. Riggs reviewed the past 10 months his staff of nearly 400 medical personnel provided care to more than 100,000 patients, and performed nearly 1,800 surgical procedures, noting with pleasure the outstanding reputation EMF Dallas built throughout the theater of operations.

Mosul, Iraq — Over three hundred residents receive fresh water from another water network completion in Baquba.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Director of Water for Diyala worked together to refurbish existing pipelines in the town of Baquba.  As a result, workers connected three hundred and fifteen homes to the water network.  The citizens of Baquba now receive a continuous flow of water directly from the nearby water treatment plant instead of waiting for unreliable delivery trucks to transport water to their homes.

A new operation in western Iraq started on 2 December 2005.  CENTCOM has published a situation update on Operation Shank, which is centered on the Al—Anbar capital of Ar—Ramadi:

Camp Blue Diamond, Ar Ramadi, Iraq — Operation Harba (Shank) is the fifth in a series of operations by the Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces conducting combined clearing operations to disrupt the insurgency and set the conditions for a successful Dec. 15 election in the Al Anbar provincial capital of Ar Ramadi.  Iraqi Army Soldiers and U.S. Forces began the operation in the early morning hours by conducting targeted raids on suspected terrorist safe houses in central Ramadi resulting in the discovery of bomb making material.  The purpose of the operation is to disrupt a terrorist group that utilizes an area of Ramadi as its base for attacks on local Ramadi citizens, the Iraqi and U.S. military.  Approximately 200 Iraqi Army Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 7th Division and 300 Marines from 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, are taking part in Operation Shank.

Compiled by Douglas Hanson   12 04 05