Capt. Keith P. Tighe, commanding officer, Company D, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, shakes hands with Col. Fathy Ismail Afdeo, commanding officer, 3rd Battalion, 11 Brigade, 3rd Iraqi Army Division, prior to a meeting Nov. 10. Tighe, 39, Sacramento, Calif., and the “Diablos” of Company D accepted responsibility for battle space in the Nineweh province Nov. 10. The Marines relieved soldiers from the Army’s 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Mission accomplishment for the Diablos is to enable stabilization of Mosul by maintaining presence in towns, villages and along trade routes used by foreign fighter facilitators and insurgents. The Marines make up one element of the first Marine Air Ground Task Force outside Anbar in Iraq since 2004. They traveled to the Nineweh province to kick off Operation Defeat Al Qaeda in the North II, an operation aimed at stamping out the insurgency just west of the restive city of Mosul.