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101st Airborne destroys three weapon caches, arrests man for anti-American activity

Army News Service

Release Date: 8/20/2003

MOSUL, Iraq (Army News Service, Aug. 20, 2003) -- Soldiers from the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based, 101st Airborne Division found three large weapons caches near Mosul Aug. 17-18.

The cache found Aug. 17 was near a possible ambush site, division officials said. Soldiers sat at the site for 48 hours watching to see if anyone would try to recover the cache. No one did, officials added.

The cache consisted of one Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher, four RPG rounds, one 60mm mortar tube with base plate, two 60 mm rounds, one AK-47 with five magazines, and 16 9 mm submachine guns.

The next day, policemen of Al Hadr, and the town's mayor told soldiers about a large deposit of weapons, division officials said. Inside, they found: 4,230 rounds of RPG, 100 mm artillery shells, and 57 mm anti-aircraft artillery rounds.

The division's Mine Action Group destroyed half of the cache, said division officials. The remainder was relocated to a bunker and will be destroyed at a later date.

Later that day, a patrol from the division's 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, discovered a cache of 35 120 mm mortar rounds west of Qayyarah.

Additionally, with help from a local man, 101st Airborne soldiers arrested a man for passing out anti-U.S. leaflets and hiding weapons, division officials said.

The man told the soldiers about his neighbor's activities and was rewarded for his actions but division officials didn't say how much or what he was given. The reward was part of the rewards program started during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Slowly but surely, more locals are providing information to U.S. soldiers about weapons caches and individuals conducting terrorist activities, division officials said.

Rewards are available for specific targeted information that leads to successful operations against international terrorism.

Rewards may be paid in cash, goods, services, or a combination of all three. Cash rewards may be in amounts up to $200,000 in U.S. or foreign currency.

(Editor's note: two press releases from the 101st Airborne Division Public Affairs Office contributed to this report.)