Military

Soldiers arrest chief of Baghdad kidnapping cell

January 30, 2006

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Jan. 30, 2006) -- Acting on a tip, Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldiers were moving to the house of a suspected kidnapping cell leader Saturday night west of Baghdad when they came across the decapitated bodies of three Iraqis on a soccer field.

The Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, detained the suspected criminal who lives just north of the soccer field. In the house Soldiers found a pistol, a sniper rifle, improvised explosive device batteries, timers and circuit boards.

The patrol notified Iraqi authorities who later removed the bodies of the three Iraqis.

While searching three other houses in the area, the U.S. patrol detained three additional suspects when they found four 155mm rounds, two with cell phones attached and rigged for detonation, numerous IED trigger devices, one AK-47 and anti-Iraqi forces literature.

In a separate incident, Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, were conducting a patrol in central Baghdad Sunday morning when they discovered two dead local nationals with spent 9mm casings next to them. The patrol stayed on the scene until Iraqi Police arrived.

These incidents are under investigation.

(Editor’s note: Information provided by Multi-National Division Baghdad Public Affairs.)