 The brigade then shifted focus to the "Bread Basket" area of the Diyala River Valley between the major cities of Dali Abbas and Muqdadiyah.The deliberate clearing of the "Bread Basket" – Operation Raider Harvest – saw 2–23 Infantry and 2/3 Armored Cavalry conducting shaping operations while 3/2 Stryker Cavalry and 5th Iraqi Army Division assets conducted clearing.This operation drove Al Qaeda from the area and freed dozens of villages from terrorist control.