Press Briefing, July 7, 2006
Multi-National Force-Iraq
Thursday, 06 July 2006
BRIEFING BY MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN FOR THE MULTINATIONAL FORCE IRAQ TOPIC: SECURITY OPERATIONS IN IRAQ LOCATION: THE COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER, BAGHDAD, IRAQ TIME: 10:18 A.M. EDT DATE: FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2006
GEN. CALDWELL: Good afternoon. I appreciate you all coming here on such short notice.
As you may well have heard, last night Iraqi security forces, with coalition force overwatch, did conduct a very significant operation in eastern Baghdad. What's important for us is to ensure that you all have the facts as they occurred and know exactly what happened during this operation.
As with most of our operations, we always take what we call combat camera crews, military personnel who have cameras with night vision capability. And they did accompany us and did take footage of this operation, which we'd also like to share with you today.
Early this morning Iraqi security forces captured a very significant criminal during early morning raid in eastern Baghdad as part of Operation Together Forward. As you know, that's the Iraqi government's plan to bring greater security to the Baghdad area.
During this operation, Iraqi security forces were operating from 16 up-armored humvees, which belong to them, their vehicles, and two up-armored medium trucks, so a total of 18 vehicles that conducted an infiltration last night into eastern Baghdad, with forces on board both the trucks and the vehicles, to then move to what were known to be three objective sites that they were moving to, where they had been -- where they had established, by intelligence means, that this was the location of one of those three where they would find this significant person that they were going to detain.
What I'd like to do is sort of talk through a little of the operation with you to give you a perspective of what occurred, by using some of the video that we have.
What I'd like to do first is show you that as they arrived in the objective area, their intent was not to have to use any hostile force or use any of their weapons systems. They would respond only when fired upon. And you can sort of see that in this first clip I'll show you. This is Iraqi security forces, with some coalition force advisers working with them, that are arriving at the scene. And when it first starts, you'll see an RPG round fired at the coalition advisers and the Iraqi security forces, and then you'll see the Iraqi security forces return fire.
What's important to note in this is that all of the Iraqi security forces are operating with night vision devices. And they're also operating with what are called lasers on each of their weapons systems. And you'll see straight line coming out from each Iraqi security force person. Iraqi army is what they are, specifically.
So if you could, on the arriving thing, I'd like to have the sound. (To staff.) If you can start back from the beginning, please, and just freeze it right at the beginning.
They're moving down the street. This here is their vehicles. They're operating both dismounted, and you can see them here. And that light that you see like here is one of his lasers that under infrared cameras, which we are using -- and they're also operating under night vision goggles -- they can clearly see all of those themselves, and you will be able to see it. Somebody else, though, who was a criminal or insurgent operating against them, which they did this night, last night, will not be able to see those things.
So there are both dismounted and mounted element coming down this street.
Can you put the sound and with it the two first sergeants so they can hear the sound? That's kind of critical because you're going to -- that's the only way you can hear that RPG. (Pause.)
Right here, you can see that this gentleman is in fact looking up at a location over there with his laser light. This is in fact was a very dark area, but it appears very lit because we had an aircraft line overhead that was providing infrared light into the area to light it up. And then, of course, they had their night-vision goggles with -- and they also had infrared lights they were using themselves on the ground along with the laser lights on each of their weapon systems.
A very well-coordinated, well-executed operation. Iraqi security forces in fact planned this operation and then executed it themselves last night.
They are taking fire at this point -- if we can get the noise there so you can hear it -- and they're looking for where that fire came from up in that building over there.
If they can't get the sound -- I'll at least talk you through each of the different engagement facets. (Pause.)
Christine, do you think you'll be able to do it? If not --
STAFF: (Off mike.)
GEN. CALDWELL: All right. Let me, if I could -- let me go to number two, because there you can see some of the fire. What you would have heard in that first one was an RPG round going off, and then what in fact happened -- they hit the rear of the convoy, and we in fact got an RPG round that lodged into the rear of one of the vehicles.
This is then now an exchange of gunfire.
Can you start back from the beginning, please, so I can talk through it?
At this point here, they're looking around. And you can see the gunfire coming in by the little strips of light that will sort of come from over there. That's firing coming towards the Iraqi security forces. And again, you can hear a lot better if we can get the sound going there.
Again, all this just occurred last night. We're pulling raw footage out and quickly declassifying as much as we can to show you this operation as it occurred.
Can we go to the third clip while you all keep working that? (Pause.) And then freeze it at the very beginning, just for a second.
This is -- again, now, the Iraqi security forces are panning as they're looking around with their laser systems. You can see where they're actually focusing their weapons as they're scanning the tops of buildings. At this point, they had been receiving a significant amount of fire from the tops of the buildings.
Leave it there for one second. Let me just talk through what has occurred at this point.
The ground assault force, consisting of 16 humvee vehicles and two medium trucks, moved into the -- what we call the objective area where the three buildings were that they had good intelligence that indicated that's where the person of interest was located. They immediately started receiving fire before they even got to the three houses where they were going into.
At that point, they were engaging people on tops of rooftops. And you can see they're -- this is as they're leaving, but they're very keen at this point, realizing they're taking significant fire from rooftops and RPG rounds, recoilless rocket grenades being fired at them.
They then arrived at the three objectives that they had previously identified through intelligence. They did, in fact, go to it, conducted an assault breach, putting an explosive charge on the door to blow the hinges off to allow them immediate access into the three homes. They went into the three homes. They did, in fact, not find the person of interest at that point. As they continued to talk to the people who were in the homes, they were able to understand that the person of interest was literally almost on one house away.
The assault forces at this point had received no fire from inside those homes or exchanged any inside those homes. The assault forces then moved back out of those three homes, went to the house that had just been identified through the tactical questioning of those in the other homes, conducted an assault breach by, again, putting explosive charges on the door, going into the home. No shots were fired, and they did, in fact, find the person of interest in that home, or as we say, the significant criminal that we were looking for in that location.
They took him and four other persons that were with him, four other males, a total of five persons. They then came back out of the house. Again, no shots were exchanged at any time while they were in that home, either. They moved back to their vehicles and then began the movement out of that location.
The entire time they've been operating here, the cordon force was receiving fire from multiple different positions. At one point there was a group of about seven to eight what were clearly insurgents moving towards them, firing, using rocket-propelled grenades. At that point they did, in fact, call in aerial support; they did use coalition support aircraft to put three 105 rounds into that location. That neutralized that threat. They dispersed at that point. And when the extraction got ready to go, they brought all the vehicles back in, everybody moved to their vehicles, and they drove out of the city area there, continuing to receive gunfire being fired at them throughout that time.
This is a picture of them now back on the vehicles as they're leaving that location. (To staff) And if you can go and show it now, please. And again, they're receiving tremendous amounts of small arms fire as they're driving back out of that location they had just been operating in. Those are RPG-7s being fired at them that are going off.
And then if you can, the one other clip we have. We had aircraft flying overhead in support of this operation. And you'll see the aircraft as they came down lower, if you look right over here, in this area right there you'll see gunfire being fired up at the aircraft that's flying over the top providing them aerial support.
It was about a 43-minute fight from start to finish. The operation obviously lasted longer than that. You can see them as they're driving away here, as they're leaving the area.
Thank you.
The operation took several hours from start to finish from when they started the operation to when they returned back to their start point. During that time frame, though, the intense portion of it was about a 43-minute -- from when they first received gunfire fired at them until when they extracted from that location and no longer receiving gunfire was about a total time of about 43 minutes.
What we do know about this individual that we picked up, he had multiple insurgent cells in Baghdad. His main focus is to conduct attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces. These attacks have included using improvised explosive devices and vehicle improvised explosive devices.
He and his followers have kidnapped, tortured and murdered Iraqi citizens. And he is also personally responsible for the killing of two Iraqi soldiers in an attempt to improve his organization's status with his higher leadership. Additionally, he is linked to a punishment committee that carries out vigilante judgment on perceived enemies of his organization.
We know that this individual was also involved in the transfer of weapons from Syria into Iraq to, reportedly, facilitate the efforts -- his efforts to splinter away from his current organization. No Iraqi or coalition forces were wounded or killed during this operation.
They estimate that between 30 to 40 may have been wounded or killed from the insurgent side.
We know that Iraqi security forces conducted this operation because that insurgent leader was using this area where we picked him up as his base of operations. They did not target any specific individual or group, rather we target insurgents who are conducting illegal and unauthorized activities and violent activities at that. The security of this area was compromised because they had made the decision to operate out of a residential location. The mission overall was a success. They did in fact pick up the person of interest. We have him in custody at this time along with four other people that were with him, and they are conducting tactical interrogations, and we'll see what comes from those interrogations.
If I could, what questions do you have?
Yes, sir.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: This was in a -- this operation was an Iraqi organized, led and executed operation by Iraqi -- specifically Iraqi army forces, and they in fact executed this operation. Coalition forces, there were some there but only in support of the Iraqi security forces, not there as the -- we did not take part in the assault force, we did not take part in anything other than being there to provide support, whatever they might need, to assist them with, like when they requested aerial gunship support or something like that. That's why coalition forces were present.
So it was an Iraqi-planned, an Iraqi-led and Iraqi-executed operation by Iraqi army forces, in which coalition forces just supported.
The name of the individual right now has not been released. As they go through the exploitation of the information they received from the site that they took from -- they picked up a few other items from the -- when they grabbed him and the four other males, like phones and some other things, and they're going through the exploitation of those. And his name will be released, but right now, they do not want to release who exactly it was.
Q (In Arabic.) GEN. CALDWELL: There were no cluster bombs used in this operation. Yeah, there was no cluster bombs used at all.
There was three precision shells that were used, but they're not cluster bombs. All three did hit, and all three exploded. There was no unexploded ordnance left from those three.
They were only used out in the street area, where the congregation of that group of people that were firing at the Iraqi army forces that were doing part of the cordon were located. It fired in support of them, against those. And once it did, then they dispersed, and there was no more effective fire from where they had been located.
The whole operation was actually conducted in a very surgical manner. There was no fire required in any of the homes, and only when fired upon did the Iraqi army forces return fire back. And I've got the report from the -- our coalition support assets that were with them who observed the entire operation. It just took me a while to get all this, so I could come to share that with you this afternoon.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: On any operation we conduct, we always take every measure to avoid any civilian casualties. There are no known civilian casualties for -- which the Iraqi army forces observed. Doesn't mean there wasn't any, but there was no observed Iraqi civilian casualties from this operation.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: The Iraqi security forces that executed this operation did it themselves. They operated independently of us, and the coalition forces that were there were only there to support them as they requested support, to assist with air support or something of that nature.
But the operation was Iraqi army specifically, planned, organized, executed by them, not by coalition forces. The target is one that they identified through their intelligence means within the Iraqi intelligence services. We were aware of exactly who they were going after and why they did share that with the coalition forces that are there in support of them.
But it was an entirely executed operation by Iraqi security -- Iraqi army forces, to be specific.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: None ever reported. In fact, they went into four different homes from the report here, and all they did was detain and bring out five males with them, one of those being the person specifically they went to get.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: Obviously, with Operation Together Forward going on right now, the intent is to conduct operations to bring greater security to the Baghdad city. It's an operation that has been planned by the government of Iraq, of which, as I think you know, there's 52,000 military members involved in this. There's only about 8,000 coalition forces and the other 43,000 are Iraqi security forces, either national police, police or Iraqi army forces. They're the -- 80-85 percent of the force is Iraqi security forces that are executing this. They will go wherever they need to within the city to bring greater security and safety to the Iraqi citizens, as they did early this morning.
There's no area that is off limits. If there's in fact an element anywhere within the city that is going to cause greater -- you know, produce less security, than they're going to go operate there. They were not targeting any specific group. The intent is not to target any type of group or persons. The intent is to target those who are conducting criminal activities, who are conducting violent crimes, who are conducting murders, who are conducting kidnappings, who are conducting illegal weapons transfers and sales. Those are the persons of interest with whom this operation is directed against. It is not directed against any organization or any particular type of sect or anything else.
If you in fact murder, kidnap, are involved in illegal weapons transfers, then those are the -- then you are susceptible to being targeted and gone after by Iraqi security forces and coalition forces as part of Operation Together Forward.
MODERATOR: (Off mike) -- if you have any final comments.
GEN. CALDWELL: No, I -- the Iraqi security forces did (an) absolutely incredible job last night in the execution of this operation, from the planning through the execution of it, and they did it very surgically, too, making maximum use of their enhanced equipment they had been trained on and become very proficient with.
It was very surgically done. Collateral damage was absolutely minimized. They moved in, they went to their objective area, they identified the person they wanted to bring back out and they extracted and came back out without using excessive force.
Overall, a great job by the Iraqi army last night and this morning as they executed that operation.
Thank you very much.
END.
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