Iraqi, Coalition forces gaining ground on Baghdad terrorists
November 9, 2005
BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Nov. 9, 2005) – Iraqi and Coalition forces detained terrorists and found more than 1,000 rounds of munitions and explosive-device components this past week in and around Baghdad.
Iraqi, U.S. forces nab terrorists
After a Task Force Baghdad patrol struck an improvised explosive device northwest of Baghdad Nov. 3, two suspicious individuals were detained. U.S. Soldiers secured the site and notified an explosive ordnance disposal team. Three hours after the initial attack, two suspicious trucks driving with their headlights off tried to flee the area. The trucks drove into tangled wire and two terrorists were quickly detained by the Soldiers.
Another patrol, operating in the Abu Ghraib area, came under small-arms fire. After searching and clearing three buildings in the vicinity, Soldiers detained two individuals who were found with AK-47 assault rifles which had been recently fired. The search also produced loaded AK-47 magazines and a box with about 350 7.62-millimeter rounds. The two men claimed they’d been engaging in celebratory gunfire and weren’t aiming at U.S. troops.
On Nov. 6, Coalition Forces reported taking small-arms fire from a white sedan in a drive-by shooting incident in the Taji area north of Baghdad. Coalition Forces returned fire and disabled the vehicle. A security patrol responding to the incident detained two terrorists, one of whom had a gunshot wound to his leg. One Iraqi Army Soldier received a grazing wound to the arm and was treated at the site.
Iraqi Police find, disarm roadside bomb
Iraqi Police discovered a roadside bomb before it could be detonated in east Baghdad Nov. 7.
The improvised explosive device consisted of four buried mortar rounds and an anti-tank round. Iraqi Police secured the area around the bomb to protect the public.
An Iraqi Police explosives ordnance disposal team disarmed the IED and took it to an undisclosed location for destruction.
Iraqi Security Forces snare elusive bomber
Iraqi Security Forces in Baghdad captured a terrorist suspected of roadside bombings after his accomplice was shot and killed two days earlier. Elements of the Iraqi 3rd Public Order Brigade discovered the two terrorists emplacing a roadside bomb east of Salman Pak Nov. 6. A firefight broke out and one terrorist, wanted by the POB for connection to numerous roadside bombings in the past, was killed while the other evaded capture.
Evidence discovered at the scene led POB to the dead terrorist’s partner Nov. 7. He was detained and is now being processed by the Iraqi judicial system. In the initial interrogation, the suspect admitted to his involvement in the attempted attack.
“The Public Order Brigade has come a long way since it moved into Salman Pak earlier this year,” said Lt. Col. Edward Chesney, deputy commander of Coalition Forces in east Baghdad. “They have improved their investigative technique and are doing everything they can to protect the people from terrorist attacks. This event shows just how far they have come.”
Iraqi Security Forces respond to car bomb at university
Iraqi Security Forces and firefighters responded to the site of a car bomb in east Baghdad that exploded near Al Mustansiriyah University shortly before 9 a.m. Nov. 8.
Iraqi fire fighters extinguished the blaze while the security forces secured the site. Iraqi Police said the car bomb detonated next to the wall of the university while most of the students were in class, but no blast damage to the university or other property and no casualties were reported.
Soldiers find large weapons cache during patrol
Task Force Baghdad Soldiers found a large weapons cache during a patrol northwest of Baghdad Nov. 5.
Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division found a stockpile of various munitions buried near a house they searched during the patrol. More than 300 152-millimeter and 155-millimeter artillery shells, more than 100 120-millimeter rounds, dozens of rifles, hundreds of rounds of small-arms and large-caliber ammunition, and various fuses and weapons sights were uncovered.
Multiple weapons caches discovered
Elsewhere in Iraq, Task Force Band of Brothers’ Soldiers found and disposed of five separate caches of weapons Nov. 8, four of which were near Logistics Support Area Anaconda and a fifth near Kirkuk.
Among the items discovered were 14 rockets, 10 mortar rounds, seven large artillery shells, seven rocket-propelled grenades, six 125-mm tank rounds, three RPG launchers, various IED components and more than a thousand rounds of small arms ammunition. The unexploded ordnance was destroyed in place by explosive ordnance disposal teams. In addition to the weapons, terrorist propaganda was also found in the caches.
(Editors note: Several articles were combined by ARNEWS staff member Sgt. Ken Hall for this report. Contributors included: Maj. Jeff Allen, 101st Airborne Division PAO, 2nd Brigade Combat Team PAO, 3rd Infantry Division’s Sgt. 1st Class David Abrams, and Sgt. Matthew Wester, 3/1 AD PAO.)
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