CAMP LIBERTY, Baghdad -- It can be hard to plan stories around here. For the past two days in a row, Tony and I went on Stryker missions bound for a Baghdad police station.

The Iraqi police have a reputation for sectarian murder and general shadiness. I wanted to get a sense for how Fort Lewis soldiers are working with Iraqi police investigators to clean out killers within the police ranks.

Both days began with stops at the station. But the guy the soldiers needed to talk to never seemed to show up when he was supposed to.

Then, both days, word came over the radio that IED's were found near “RPG Alley” on the main freeway that runs from Jordan into Baghdad.

So we all piled back into the Strykers and headed to RPG Alley. The Fort Lewis Strykers blocked traffic and pulled security while ordinance experts safely blew the IED.

The first day this happened, Saturday, an insurgent sniper round hit our Stryker as we waited for the ordinance people to finish disposing of the IED. The shot was about a foot and a half too low to hit the guys riding outside in the hatches and could not penetrate the Stryker armor to hit those sitting inside.

Today, Sunday, we were back at almost the exact same spot to deal with another IED. No sniper drama this time, just a wait while ordinance experts blew the thing with a loud boom.

It seems like the insurgents might be stepping up attacks for the holy month of Ramadan.

I guess my story on the police will have to wait a bit.

-- Sean Cockerham