Picturesque desert landscape on the way out to the Iraq

Picturesque desert landscape on the way out to the Iraq/Iran border.	And it keeps going...	and going...
The long road to the border.	Starting to get closer. You can start to make out some mountains.	One of the Iraqi border forts from far off.
A little closer	Winding our way to one of the several that needed to be inspected that day.	Front entrance.
Iran	Iraq (heck of a lot of difference, huh?)	One of the several Iraqi Border Patrol checkpoints we had to pass through.
One of the Iranian order forts.	And another.	An Iraqi border fort, with an Iranian fort in the background.
A new Iraqi fort on the left and the remnants of an older one on the right, with an Iranian fort visible in the middle in the distance.	Old and new Iraqi fort, with one an Iranian listening (spy) outpost just behind the new fort.	A pic of moi, with the Iranian listening outpost in the background.
The ending to a little bit of a tense moment with the Iraqi border patrol. Details at the bottom. Notice the guys standing behind the cover of the armored vehicles.	Several Iranian forts visible from the roof of one of the Iraqi forts.	The ruins of an older Iraqi fort.
The Iranian listening outpost.	Looking towards one of the other Iraqi forts.
Uptown Al Kut.	Some more of Al Kut.	Driving through Al Kut traffic.
An Al Kut traffic cop.	Some mud huts in the region north of Al Kut, towards Numiniyah. It's pretty odd to see satellite dishes on the very basic dwellings. But they are everywhere.
The view looking back out of the rear vehicle, or the "gunship".	Lines for fuel.	Same
	And around the corner, it still goes.	And then some.
Some more mud huts with the Sat dishes.		A couple of kids outside of a school we are leaving. It had to be inspected on it's construction process. The kids always come running up around you to say hi, but mostly to get free cold water, and treats. The treats typically consist of power bars or muffins.
A mother and her daughter sheparding their livestock.	A young boy tending his sheep.	A couple kids in a Numiniyah suburb that were waving at us as we drove by.

The Iraqi Border Patrol tends to be hit or miss regarding their loyalties. There are several areas where the Border Patrol are loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, who is the leader of the Mahdi Militia. The Mahdi Militia are a militant group of fighters continuously responsible for attacks against Coalition Forces. Recently one of our Liaison teams headed out to the border forts. They typically go out there to bring water and food to the police standing on checkpoints, and gather intel. The team typically consists of two Expats (Brit, American, Australian, whatever), and several Iraqis to translate, and help the other Iraqis feel at ease. This one instance at the border fort, the police chief and several of his officers approached the Iraqis on the team, and attempted to bribe them to help kidnap the 2 Expats. When the two Expats were told of this later, one of the Expats asked the Iraqi what their answer had been. He said "We decided that we were with you, today". The today at the end of the sentence is typical of some of the mentality that has to be dealt with at times. Needles to say, that group of Iraqis were fired soon after.

The picture I noted the tense moment in above was set in a region that is a known supporter of the Mahdi Militia (many of the officers are police by day, militia by night). So to have them pop up at one of our locations with a truckful of men, when typically, there is only one in the vehicle, was a little disconcerting. There was some smiling back and forth, and they quickly left. Needless to say, we didn't stay at that location much longer. But they have been known to pull people from their vehicles at checkpoints, etc.

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