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Operation Iron Triangle shuts down insurgent training camp

By Spc. Cassandra Groce
May 15, 2006

TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, May 15, 2006) – Iraqi army and U.S. Soldiers raided a suspected insurgent training camp during Operation Iron Triangle near Lake Thar Thar, southwest of Tikrit May 9.

Nearly 200 Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, and approximately 230 Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team air assaulted from CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters into the suspected camp after intelligence sources pin-pointed the location as being the Muthana Chemical Complex.

The 150-square kilometer complex was a chemical production facility that was closed by the United Nations after the fall of the former regime.

“Insurgents were coming here to train, conduct link-up operations, and moving out to attack coalition forces,” said Capt. Andrew Graham, assistant plans and operations officer, 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment.

The combined three-day operation netted more than 200 suspected insurgents.

“We have been finding evidence that this place has been used to train insurgents,” Graham said. “We conducted a detailed search, detained suspicious individuals, and (used) the intelligence that we got from them, which resulted in follow-on operations on day two.”

Searches yielded propaganda materials, rifles and videos. Iraqi Soldiers also gathered names of potential threats from the detainees nabbed during the operation.

“We have found some smaller caches and have captured more than 10 men who we found to be part of Tahiwed and Jihad [insurgent groups],” said Lt. Col. Musab Josif, 1st Bn., 1st Bde., 4th IA Div. “The best thing we had during the mission is good cooperation between the Iraqi and American Soldiers. They worked together as one team.”

The partnership between Iraqi Army and coalition forces was one of the many successes of the mission.

“The Iraqi Army is becoming more and more competent in the planning and execution of missions,” Graham said. “In regards to that, they are very capable of doing their own tactical operations and reacting to intelligence.”

(Editor's note: Spc. Cassandra Groce writes for the 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.)