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Release A050701b

Iraqi civilians work with Coalition Forces to discover terrorist cache

Multi-National Force-Iraq

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARRIOR, Iraq – Based on information from an Iraqi civilian, Soldiers from Company B, 3rd Battalion, 116th Armor Regiment, Task Force Liberty discovered an unexploded ordnance cache in the Kirkuk Province June 29. “By far, this is the biggest weapons cache the 116th has found,” said 1st Lt. John Thew, Company B, 3rd Battalion 116th Brigade Armor Regiment from Cove, Ore. “We have found in one day, what usually takes four months.”

We received a call that a man wanted to show us where some bombs were, Thew added. “We followed him out to the site in the middle of the night and he pointed to some rounds. After assessing the situation, we realized it was more than we were going to be able to deal with that night.”

The Iraqi police guarded the weapons cache until morning, when the Explosive Ordinance Detachment arrived.

“Finds like this are important,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Michael Becker, 506th Air Expeditionary Group, Explosive Ordnance Detachment and native of Warrensburg , Mo. “We've seen signs that terrorists are running low on ordnances to use on roadside improvised explosive devices and vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attacks. This [find] makes it harder for [the terrorist], especially when we take out a major weapons cache.”

“The Iraqi Police were very helpful. They were working the shovels with us and helping us anyway they could,” Becker said. “Most of the [munitions] were in good, safe condition, so we were comfortable with letting the Iraqi army, police and civilians help.”

“Hopefully, this can be attributed to saving many lives and combat equipment in the area of Kirkuk ,” Thew said.

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THIS STORY HAS AN ACCOMPANYING PHOTOGRAPH. TO RECEIVE THE PHOTO, E-MAIL THE CPIC PRESS DESK AT cpicpressdesk@iraq.centcom.mil .

CUTLINE

KIRKUK , Iraq -- Soldiers with B Company, 3rd-116th work with the 506th Air Expeditionary Group, EOD, to place C4 on a pile of unexploded ordnance. Photo by Spc. Adam Phelps, 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

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Text for release and opsec review provided by the 42ND Infantry Division Public Affairs Office. For more information, please contact 42 ID PAO at fortysecond.id.pao@us.army.MIL