The latest word from Iraq was that more than 400 Schofield Barracks soldiers with Hawai'i's Stryker brigade were slugging it out in the slums of Sadr City in Baghdad.

Hawai'i units involved in the fighting there included the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry "Wolfhounds;" the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry "Gimlets"; and the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry "Golden Dragons."

A New York Times reporter was embedded with two platoons of the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry in Sadr City, a Shiite slum on Baghdad's eastern edge.

Heavy fighting was reported weeks after a campaign by Iraqi forces to take on Shiite gangs and the Mahdi Army militia in the southern city of Basra.

Fighting there spilled over into Baghdad, where the Mahdi Army, led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is influential.

The New York Times story said Stryker soldiers from Hawai'i were trying to encourage reluctant Iraqi army counterparts to lead the fight as sniper fire and an occasional rocket-propelled grenade flew by.

One of the Hawai'i Stryker vehicles hit a roadside bomb, wounding some of its crew, the newspaper said. An adjacent building had burned to the ground.

The Hawai'i soldiers, normally based around Baghdad in and near Taji, Tarmiya and Abu Ghraib, were pulled into Sadr City on what they were originally told would be a few days of duty.

That has stretched into several weeks.

Lt. Mark Dudek, the leader of the second platoon of the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry, last week was leading soldiers down a street when the civilian population vanished. The platoon took fire from a nearby building, and responded with an ear-shattering barrage.

IN BRIEF

GIMLETS HELP FIND SOLDIER'S REMAINS

The 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry "Gimlets," noted above, also were responsible for recovering the remains of Staff Sgt. Matthew Maupin, a U.S. soldier who was captured in an ambush four years ago in Iraq.

Maupin, a 20-year-old with an Illinois-based transportation company, disappeared after his fuel convoy was ambushed on April 9, 2004.

A release by the military said the recovery "was made possible by the Gimlets relentlessly pursuing intelligence leads and simultaneously leveraging the new relationships made possible by reconciliation.

The Associated Press, citing an official with a local "awakening" council, as U.S-allied Sunni groups are called, reported that U.S. soldiers had driven through the area on Baghdad's northwestern outskirts for a year saying over loudspeakers that the U.S. was offering a $200,000 reward for information on Maupin's body.

"To find out that we were able to recover one of our fallen comrades and bring him home to his family is really an indescribable feeling," Capt Jeff Higgins, the commander of Bravo Company, which found the remains, told the AP. "I'm sure it took some hope away from the family, but I think it probably gives them some much-needed closure."

ISLE GUARD TRAINS IN INDONESIA

About 40 Hawai'i National Guard soldiers recently were in Jakarta, Indonesia, along with Army Reserve soldiers for the exercise Garuda Shield, as the U.S. military and the state of Hawai'i increase ties with the world's largest Muslim-inhabited nation.

U.S. military ties with Indonesia were cut by the Clinton administration in 1999 over human-rights violations. The Bush administration restored full military relations in 2005.

Last year's U.S. involvement in Garuda Shield was singled out in October by then-U.S. Army Pacific commander Lt. Gen. John M. Brown III as "the first major army-to-army interface in almost 14 years" between the two nations.

Brown said the exercise represented "an initial step toward re-establishing relations with an important regional ally."

About 170 soldiers from the Army Reserve's 9th Mission Support Command, the Hawai'i National Guard, and Indonesian army were in Jakarta for the opening ceremony of Garuda Shield 2008.

The exercise provided brigade-level training focusing on United Nations peacekeeping operations. The Garuda, a mythical predatory bird, is the national symbol of Indonesia.

Brig Gen. Alexander I. Koslov, who commands the 9th Mission Support Command from its headquarters in Hawai'i, said the exercise was "an opportunity for two nations' armies to come together in a learning environment to share experiences and gain wisdom from the lessons from one another."

Indonesian military and civilian personnel are expected in Hawai'i in May for an annual hurricane exercise.

11 LAID TO REST IN PACIFIC OCEAN

Ten former service members and one spouse were laid to rest in the waters of the Pacific Ocean during burial-at-sea ceremonies April 2 aboard the Pearl Harbor-based frigate USS Reuben James.

"The people we do the ceremonies for made similar sacrifices to what we do in the Navy," said Cmdr. Joseph Naman, commanding officer of the Reuben James. "This was one of their last wishes and I think we owe that to honor them."

The ceremonies were held according to religious preference and type of burial, with one service member laid to rest in a coffin, while the rest had their remains committed to the sea, the Navy said.

All current and former United States service members who receive an honorable discharge are eligible to be buried at sea. Ceremonies are coordinated with embarked ships through local naval hospitals.

Reach William Cole at 525-5459 or wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.