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Citizens Help Troops Capture Suspects, Take Down Safehouse

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2005 – Coalition forces in Iraq arrested 10 suspected terrorist during a raid in western Ramadi today after Iraqi citizens pointed out a safehouse where the suspects were hiding and storing weapons. The military said a local Iraqi citizen confirmed the building was being used as a terrorist safehouse. When coalition forces approached the building, several suspects fled, officials said. Six of them were immediately detained, and four others were captured hiding inside a nearby Mosque after Iraqi citizens alerted coalition forces to their whereabouts.

Meanwhile, a male who lived at the house told coalition forces the suspected terrorists were storing explosives inside, where his two small children remained.

Coalition forces immediately rescued the children, and then destroyed the safehouse using attack helicopters. Secondary explosions were seen in the blast, officials said.

The military said a search of the destroyed building afterward turned up improvised explosive devices and other weapons.

In other news from Iraq, Iraqi army soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force, and coalition forces searched an apartment complex in Fallujah on Aug. 2 and found a 155 mm artillery round, a rocket, a mortar round and a rocket-propelled grenade round. An explosive ordnance disposal team was called in and destroyed the munitions in place.

Following an Aug. 2 explosion on a roadway in Qayyarah, Iraqi army soldiers received a report of unexploded ordnance in the same vicinity. Soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division, rushed to the scene and secured the area. Two 130 mm illumination rounds, encased in concrete, were found. Only one of the three improvised explosive devices detonated. An EOD team reduced the remaining IEDs without incident.

Elsewhere, IEDs were found and cleared Aug. 2 by Iraqi police in Rawah, Rabiyah, and Baqubah, officials said. Also on Aug. 2, Iraqi army soldiers searched a suspect and found artillery fuses while conducting a combined security patrol. Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force, and coalition forces detained the suspect one kilometer northwest of Hit, and transported him to a nearby camp for further questioning.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq news releases.)

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2005/20050803_2317.html