Press Briefing, Sept. 27, 2006
Multi-National Force-Iraq
Tuesday, 26 September 2006
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV
Spokesman,
Multi-National Force - Iraq
BRIEFING BY MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN, MULTINATIONAL FORCE IRAQ TOPIC: UPDATE ON SECURITY OPERATIONS IN IRAQ LOCATION: THE COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER, BAGHDAD, IRAQ TIME: 7:00 A.M. EDT DATE: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2006
GEN. CALDWELL: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. "As-salaam aleikum."
The people of Iraq are currently celebrating Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim year, which is supposed to be a time of prayer and sacrifice.
Instead, we are seeing an increase in attacks, as anticipated. The terrorists and illegal armed groups are punching back in an effort to discredit the government of Iraq and more specifically the Baghdad security plan.
This has been a tough week. Over the past two weeks, we have seen a rise in the number of attacks, especially in Baghdad. Let me point out that an "attack" can mean anything from a stray round fired from a rifle to a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.
In terms of attacks, this week's suicide attacks were at their highest level in any given week, with half of them targeting security forces. Last week almost 50 percent of the vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices were suicide attacks.
The clear intent of these high-magnitude attacks are to produce mass casualties. But while we are seeing this increase in overall attack numbers, their effectiveness has not increased. That is, casualties have not increased proportionally with the number of attacks.
Slide and chart, please.
Murders and executions are currently the number-one cause of civilian deaths in Baghdad. Murders and executions continue to be primarily along a north-south line, generally along right here, associated with the beladiyas of Kadhimiya, Mansour and Baya, and then over in the east, along the army canal, generally found in Sadr City, Thawra and New Baghdad area.
Iraqi security forces, with coalition forces in support, continue their operations in the five focus areas. And again, as we've discussed before, in these five focused areas, there's five beladiyas. There's Dura, Baya, Mansour, Kadhimiya and Adhamiya. And right now we're seeing some very positive signs in the operations that are being conducted up here in the northeast portion of the Adhamiya beladiya.
There are currently more than 60,000 Iraqi and coalition forces in the city of Baghdad as part of Operation Together Forward. Of that number, approximately 15,000 are maneuver forces from the coalition forces. Iraqi security forces outnumber coalition forces three to one within the city and are facing a tough fight. They clearly carry the preponderance of the weight with the amount of security forces they have operating within the city.
Coalition forces continue to coordinate with the government of Iraq with regards to the correct number of forces in Baghdad and force levels, so that they're adjusted accordingly.
The government of Iraq, with coalition forces in support, continue to work closely with the local neighborhood advisory councils and the district advisory councils in the focus areas by employing local labor from the community to clean and rebuild parts of the neighborhood markets and help and restore essential services.
As I've stated before, security operations must be immediately supported by economic and governance efforts. These two are key to the overall Baghdad security plan. Military forces alone will not bring long-term peace and security to Baghdad. Slide and chart, please.
In the focus areas, the government of Iraq and coalition forces are devoting considerable effort towards projects aimed at providing basic services to the people. Behind security, the Iraqi people are most concerned with electricity, water and sewage. To address these concerns, the joint operations center for reconstruction is coordinating and synchronizing reconstruction efforts within the city of Baghdad. This operation center is comprised of the government of Iraq, the department of State and coalition forces.
Reconstruction liaison teams have been out in the neighborhoods for some time identifying priority areas for work, assessing projects that specifically will improve the quality of life for the Iraqi citizens living in those communities. Some are short-term projects such as trash removal, and some are long term such as sewage, water and electricity.
As you look at this graph here -- just to help talk you through it so you understand what we're talking about -- again, these are the focus areas, the green underline underneath where we in fact are currently operating with the government of Iraq security forces and coalition forces. If you see a triangle figure, it in fact -- in yellow colors -- it in fact represents an ongoing project. So all the yellows are ongoing projects that are currently being executed as we speak.
The approximate amount of money currently being spent is right at $40 million in those focus areas, with some of them here within Thawra City or Sadr City. Additionally, if you see them in red -- or orange, perhaps, as from where you look -- then that means those are currently planned. They've been approved, and funds have been programmed to be allocated against those to be started very soon. Again, that totals about $90 million for a grand total of about $131 million in the specific focus areas where currently operations are ongoing.
Slide and chart, please.
Control of Iraq is continued to be placed in the hands of the Iraqis. This week saw another significant milestone when Dhi Qar province came under provisional Iraqi control. The governor assumed responsibility not only for the day-to-day governance of Dhi Qar, but assumed overall responsibility for all law enforcement and security. Muthanna province was the first province to make this transformation in July, and the government of Iraq anticipates more provinces to come under provincial control in the near future.
Provincial Iraqi control was made possible because Iraqi security forces have become more capable. This slide depicts for you, as you look at it, those Iraqi units which are currently in the lead. Today there are six divisions, 27 brigades and 88 battalions that are in Iraqi lead. As you look in here, if you see the dark green, that means that's where the Iraqi army forces are in the lead. If you see the hashmarks, these are the two provinces where they have gone to provincial Iraqi control, where the governance of those provinces have been turned over to the governor of those provinces, and he's responsible for all governance and security within those two provinces, utilizing first his local police, then the national police and then the Iraqi army after that if necessary to maintain that.
And as we've talked previously, too, under the Iraqi Ground Forces Command, you have the 4th Iraqi Army Division and the 8th Iraqi Army Division, which are now under the direct command and control of the Iraqi Ground Forces Command, which responds directly to the prime minister as the commander in chief of the forces here in the country.
Slide and chart, please.
As the Iraqi army continues to grow in numbers, so does its capabilities. Iraqi security forces are making a concerted effort to defeat the insurgency and stop sectarian violence. Specifically, Iraqi security forces are taking the fight to death squads within the Baghdad area. The citizens of Baghdad continue to be the targets of execution-style murders. Bodies are found with clear signs of being bound, tortured and executed. Death squads and other illegal armed groups are responsible for this type of activity. Iraqi security forces continue to hunt down and capture or kill death squad members in Baghdad. Since mid-July, approximately 29 cell leaders have been killed or captured, and another 250 have been detained.
So again, that's 29 cell leaders have been killed or captured since July, with another 254 cell members having been killed or captured since July.
And if you look here within the city, just to talk through again the death squad activities focused within Baghdad, within the Baghdad city proper, there was 14 operations. Each of these indicates where an operation took place over the last week. Out of those operations, there was two cell leaders killed or captured and 42 cell members killed or captured. And again, if you take number one up here and look at that and you go over to the corresponding number here, you'll see that was an operation conducted by Iraqi security forces with coalition forces in support, and out of that operation, five detainees resulted from that operation.
During the past two weeks, specific targeting against al Qaeda in Iraq continued, resulting, separate and distinct, in these shown here; 47 assaults on objectives, resulting in 29 terrorists being killed and 140 suspected terrorists being detained.
Lastly, I'd like to highlight a significant step forward for the government of Iraq towards tackling some of the tough and complicated political issues facing them in terms of federalism and constitutional review. This week the Council of Representatives announced the formation of a Constitutional Review Committee, representative of all political factions, which will work over the next four months to make recommendations for constitutional changes.
Iraqis are working diligently to grapple with some key challenges such as the implementation of critical legislation to encourage investment and equitable distribution of both power and wealth, federalism, a hydrocarbon law, de-Ba'athification and, of course reconciliation and dialogue.
Iraq is living a critical moment in what Iraqis and all of our coalition partners supporting the mission here hope is the beginning of a long history of democracy for both this nation and this region. The process maybe seems slow, but Iraqis have many difficult choices to make to bring unity, security and prosperity. As Iraqis persevere, we must maintain the patience to allow their critical efforts to come to fruition.
And with that, I'll be glad to take whatever questions you all have.
Yes, ma'am?
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: What I would tell is that one of the probably unspoken highlights of this entire Operation Together Forward plan is the fact that the ongoing coordination only continues to get better between both the coalition forces and the Iraqi security forces. And even within their own forces, between their police forces and their army forces, even though there were challenges initially, they continue to work through those and develop better methods, techniques and procedures by how they coordinate and share information even between themselves. So the fallout of this plan has been, in fact, a very positive step forward and worked in those aspects of coordination.
In terms of troop levels, right now I think you're -- maybe you're referring to a comment that was made by the MND-Baghdad Commander General Thurman about requesting some additional forces for within the city, and again, that's something that's always encouraged if a ground commander feels he or she needs additional forces that should be brought up. It needs to be discussed, and they are in fact are in close consultation right now with the government of Iraq at looking at how exactly how they can address what General Thurman understands is where he would like to put some additional forces. That discussion's ongoing, and the government of Iraq will make those appropriate decisions as the requests have been made to them by the Multinational Division-Baghdad commander.
Yes, ma'am.
Q Sabrina, New York Times. What -- you said murders and targeted killings were the largest proportion of deaths -- civilian deaths. What -- approximately what proportion of those are actually sectarian? Do you guys have any sense of that?
GEN. CALDWELL: When we say murders and executions, we're assuming murders and executions are in fact sectarian violence that is occurring within the city, and we watch those numbers very closely. We did see a rise in the overall numbers last week, not overly significant, but it concerns us nonetheless. If you take the focus areas where we're operating, the numbers have not increased there. There is a slight -- if he can show us the Baghdad security map one more time, please. Up in Ghazalia, up right in this area here we in fact did see a slight increase in the number of murders and executions that did occur in that slight -- in that focus area, not overly significant, but there is a slight increase. And the other focus area remains stable. We have not seen increases there, but we are seeing them in the areas outside of the focus areas.
Q (Off mike.)
GEN. CALDWELL: Percentage-wise, I don't think I actually do. It was not overly significant overall this past week within Baghdad proper from the week before, but there was a slight uptick. It was -- I do not have that. I can see if we can't get that for you, though.
All right. Yes, ma'am.
Q General, Anita Powell, Stars and Stripes. For the last month, I've been following soldiers who have participated in Operation Together Forward. I was with the 177nd when they went into Sadr City for a day and a half a few weeks ago, and then they didn't go back. They said that it was ordered by higher. I'm curious what it would take for you to go back into Sadr City, what the leadership is thinking on this issue, and whether you really consider it a part of the security plan.
GEN. CALDWELL: We do consider the entire city of Baghdad as part of the overall Baghdad Security Plan. Obviously, we are taking our instructions from the government of Iraq as we work very closely with them as to what areas we focus next.
If -- you know, when you look at the areas we've operated in, Dura used to be the highest amount of murders and executions within the entire city of Baghdad, and today now it's really probably the lowest level within the entire city because of the operations. And so the way we have targeted, in consultation with the government of Iraq, into these areas was based on where the highest numbers of attacks which resulted in casualties -- that's murders and executions predominantly -- were occurring. And so that's why the focus is in those areas there.
But the prime minister has been very clear. This entire city is going to be a part of -- is part of the Baghdad Security Plan. There are ongoing operations that do continue and will continue where we do presence patrols in terms of trying to disrupt and disorganize any ongoing planning and activity without maintaining a permanent presence, and those will continue throughout the whole city. That's true, you did see the 172nd do some presence operations through Sadr City, and there's no reason those can't continue again as they continue working their plans. There is not a portion of the city that the prime minister has dictated will be restricted from this plan.
Yes, sir.
Q (Name and affiliation inaudible.) (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: To answer that -- a couple aspects.
First of all, there was the announcement made yesterday that we are going to in fact extend the tour of length of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division by about 46 days here in Iraq. They were due to rotate home in early January; they now will go home in late February. That decision was made so as to ensure that the brigade from the 3rd Infantry Division, which is currently back in the United States, would be allowed one year time at home with their families before returning for a second tour of duty here in Iraq. And that had just come to light as they were working the whole flow of forces. They realized that we had a brigade in the United States that was only going to -- been home about 10 1/2 or 11 months before they were returning back here for another duty in Iraq, and so therefore the decision was made, how to we get them a full year at home? And the Army made a recommendation to the secretary of Defense to delay the redeployment of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: I'm not sure who you mean by "he." I can tell you within the Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Defense, we do in fact -- (inaudible) -- go ahead.
(Pause for interpretation.)
Could you repeat that again, please?
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: Oh, if the Department of Defense was making a statement, they would be talking specifically about U.S. forces only. They would not be making comments about the security forces of the government of Iraq. Those specific comments were addressed to U.S. forces only.
And the decision was made to delay the redeployment of the one brigade, but eventually it's going to be replaced by another brigade from the United States Army.
And then they did talk about accelerating the movement of another brigade. But the --
Q (Off mike.)
GEN. CALDWELL: That's correct. We have the -- yes, we have two brigades that are being extended. You have the one brigade that's currently operating within the Baghdad security plan. That's our 172nd Stryker Brigade, out of Alaska. That's stayed here for additional -- up to four months. And then we're also going to extend for up to 45 days the 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division. So it's another brigade. It's a heavy brigade, an armored brigade. That's going to be extended for about an additional 45 days, from January to late February. Those are the two brigades that they're referring to that have been extended beyond their normal one-year rotation here in Iraq.
The first brigade, the 172nd Brigade, was extended in order to provide additional forces to execute the Baghdad security plan. The very deliberate decision there -- General Casey saw a need for some additional forces, made that recommendation. The secretary of Defense approved it, and we extended that unit.
The other unit was being extended in order to allow a unit that's in the States, coming over here, to spend a full year back at home before they redeploy again.
Hope that helps. Yes, sir?
Q Doug Smith from The Los Angeles Times. The projects that you listed -- were those new projects, as -- created as a part of this operation? Or were those existing projects under IRMO or U.S. aid? And can you tell me the source of the funding?
GEN. CALDWELL: There's a variety of funding sources that we're currently drawing from, everything from the Commanders Emergency Response Program through IRRF and -- there's about five or six different -- we can provide that exact breakout for you, which funding sources are being utilized in the aggregate to provide this funding as we continue working.
There are also funds that are coming from the government of Iraq that are also being solicited by the Ahmanat (ph) and the chairman of the Provincial Council here within Baghdad as they work. There's more additional projects than that's showing. Those are the ones that currently have either been approved or are ongoing and are funded, or have been approved and the funding is available and will begin. But there's more projects than just those. Those are the ones, though, that are definitely locked down and will be executed or are being executed today. Some of those, in fact, were in the plans much earlier. A majority of them -- and we can give you, again, the breakdown of that -- are as a direct result of the decision to execute the Baghdad security plan; in fact, the vast majority are the result. After the decision was made to execute this plan, again, this plan being a security piece, an economic piece, the development piece, and the governance piece. When that decision was made, and that's when the funds were redirected and start to be made available to do this support of the effort here. But again, we've got those figures readily available. We can provide those to you.
Yes, sir?
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: Okay, I'm just trying to make sure I had it correct. Your question, then, is what are our plans, future plans?
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: That is correct, there's no question every time we begin operations, that's Iraqi security forces and coalition forces, that the terrorist elements are watching very carefully, they observe what occurs, and then they make adjustments to what they're doing. Probably the most readily observable one would be their methods and techniques by which they use to cross from Syria into Iraq. We're very much aware that we're always looking for where those routes are being utilized. Once we normally find a route and shut it down by killing and capturing foreign fighters coming across the border, then they'll adjust their techniques, they'll move to a new area, they use different procedures. And then we'll start looking all over again for where they're trying to attempt to cross.
So your statement is very accurate in terms of that we have techniques and practices that we use, they adjust to them, then we take and readjust to those. And you do see that going on out there when we're fighting the insurgency, al-Qaeda-in-Iraq elements, foreign fighters.
Yes, sir?
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: All right. In terms of who these elements are that are conducting the death-squad activities, we define that as they're extremist elements on both the Shi'a and the Sunni side that are out there conducting these. It's not the mainstream Iraqis. You know, when you go out in the street, and especially if you go down to areas where we're currently operating, you know, you will not find an Iraqi who doesn't want to see peace and security come back to their country, who doesn't want to live in tranquility each and every day and find the ability to get a job and make a living. I mean, that's what they really want.
If you go look at the population of Iraq, 4 million of the 27 million people in this country are intermixed between sects. I mean, you have Sunni and Shi'a married together in families and have been living together peacefully for many, many years, about 4 million altogether out of the 27 million. So the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in peace and co-exist with each other between the different sects. But you do have extremist elements out there on both the Sunni and the Shi'a side that cause the sectarian violence, and instigated a lot of times by al Qaeda in Iraq and others that are trying to drive a wedge between those two different groups.
Yes, sir?
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: I am very much aware of the message that Muqtada al-Sadr delivered Friday in which he called for peaceful coexistence between him and his followers and the government of Iraq and the coalition forces. And for that, that's exactly how we should all operate together, in peaceful coexistence and in dialogue. There's no question.
As far as detaining a particular person, daily we conduct operations against people who are operating outside of the law, irrespective of what organization or affiliation they may have. If you are operating outside of the law, if you are conducting illegal activities, if you're suspected of doing that, then we're coming after you. And so if we, in fact, picked up somebody who says they work with a particular organization or activity, it doesn't matter to us. The question is, were you operating outside of the law; were you conducting illegal activities; and if so, you're going to be picked up and detained by security forces operating within the country of Iraq.
And so in terms of where this person might be, we'll be glad to give you some further information if you can provide us his full name afterwards. We'll check the system as to who you're exactly referring to and see, one, if that person is being detained, and if so, currently where that person is.
Q What -- of the death squad guys you said were arrested -- and I guess the numbers you said are the 29 and then the other number -- where were most of those guys picked up, what neighborhood?
GEN. CALDWELL: All just in the Baghdad area.
Q So they weren't -- the majority, I mean, were they mostly -- is it mostly Shi'ite militia guys or who? What was --
GEN. CALDWELL: We have -- we don't make a differentiation in terms of what their sect is, although obviously that is tracked. We don't normally publish that. But the majority -- vast majority of those were picked up in and around the city of Baghdad. There are some in outlying areas, but very, very few -- a minimal handful of numbers. So those are almost all within the city of Baghdad and surrounding area.
Q But in terms of what neighborhood, you couldn't say or what neighborhoods --
GEN. CALDWELL: Oh, well, in fact, each week we brief exactly where most of them have picked up. That'd be something easy to go back and look at because we do provide a weekly briefing. We show exactly where they are picked up in the city each week and the exact number that we detain at each location, so -- either killed or captured.
Q So this is something you guys have been having on a regular briefings then --
GEN. CALDWELL: Yeah, we have.
Q Okay.
GEN. CALDWELL: And we track it very closely too to see if we see some shift occurring, if we see people moving out to different areas because we may be operating. It helps us do focused presence patrols to -- where we attempt to go in and disrupt and disorganize things. And probably the most important thing, it allows us to help us make good coherent recommendations for the government of Iraq to the prime minister where the next phase of Operation Together Forward should take place. Q Can I ask a follow-up question then? Have you seen people -- death squad types that you were targeting move out of Shaab and Ore (ph)?
GEN. CALDWELL: There is definitely a downturn in the amount of murders and executions that have occurred without question when we have gone in those areas, and we do not have a direct correlation that they've gone down because of the number of people detained or killed by security forces. So we think there is in fact movement that does occur with time as we move into an area.
STAFF: Time for two more questions.
GEN. CALDWELL: Yes, sir.
Q (In Arabic.)
GEN. CALDWELL: Sir, and we couldn't agree with you more on that point. We are here at the invitation of the government of Iraq. We're guests in this country. We operate under the command and control and in consultation with everything we do with the government of Iraq, and you're exactly right. We're all here together to achieve one common objective: to establish an Iraq that is at peace with its neighbors, that can live in prosperity and have security, and that can coexist with each other. And it's an ultimate goal that we all want to achieve. So I concur with you.
Yes, sir.
Q It's kind of a two-part question. I'm looking at the key on the map. Is there any significance to the term "complete"? And with the numbers you gave us of captured and killed, can you put that into any kind of a context as to what proportion of the whole job that is, or all the people who are out there you're looking for?
GEN. CALDWELL: In terms of the "complete" -- just to help put it in a little bit of perspective -- if you see "complete," then that means we went in, conducted security sweeps of the area, did the house searches, and that's when you start seeing, you know, 95,000 buildings being searched, both homes and businesses and all that. The searches have been complete. Barriers have been put up in different areas around there. There's a presence re-established and security has been re-established.
At that point, we now are complete with re-establishing security and begin the build phase, and that's the second and third part of this whole Baghdad Security Plan, where we talk about being able to have projects that you saw in the one chart up here that allow us to restore the basic services of water, electricity and sewage, which is so essential to the people that -- you know, that's -- as you go out there and talk to them, that's what they want to have brought back to their neighborhoods. And then the governance with getting the neighborhood and the district advisory councils up and operational again and being able to input in to the Ahmanat (ph) and to the chairman of the provincial council the things that they want done in their neighborhood, whether it be refurbishment of schools or paving of roads or other of those kind of activities.
So if you see "complete," then that means they're at the phase of building, rebuilding the community both in terms of both physical structure and in leadership structure within that community.
If you see "started" -- and there are just a few little spaces right down here -- that means we're just going in and beginning the clearing phase, and that has not yet been complete.
We've clearly operated in other areas throughout the city. I mean, we've been through Sadr City once or twice -- and again, these are presence patrols that we conduct, but no intent to remain; clear every building and continue operations there on a longer-term basis. Q I'm curious, are these statistics for the whole operation or just last week?
GEN. CALDWELL: That -- no -- that's a great question. This is statistics that started from the 7th of August, when we began this operation. So almost two months at this point -- six, seven weeks.
Q Can we take copies of that now?
GEN. CALDWELL: Absolutely. Hopefully, they're in your packet. If you don't have them in your packet, we can absolutely get you that. The intent is to provide that to you.
STAFF: Sir, I think we have a gentleman who didn't get to ask one question for the last one.
GEN. CALDWELL: Okay. Yes, sir.
Q Shabad Yadiz (sp) from AFP. One, it was in the news this morning that U.S. forces killed nine members from one family, one Iraqi family in Muqdadiyah, which is part of Baqubah, and -- including four women from that family. My question is, why did US. forces kill women? This is one thing. And if they are -- according to the U.S. statement -- they are members of al Qaeda, do you think that al Qaeda has developed its technique to use women in antagonizing U.S. forces?
Thank you.
GEN. CALDWELL: The raid that you're talking about occurred this morning about 0500, about 5 a.m this morning. Security forces went into a designated target house that, based on intelligence, had a person of interest there that they were going to detain.
En route into that house, they came under intense fire from within the neighborhood. Eventually they'll make it into that home, and when they did, they announced their presence as being security forces and that their intent was for everybody in that house to come out.
At that point, all the firing from the neighboring homes that had been ongoing pretty much ceased. But intense fire continued coming from that one home, where announcements were being made to come out peacefully. When they did not, aerial support was called in against that home. And out of that attack on that home, you in fact found four men and four women dead, and you found two wounded.
So that operation did occur this morning. It was an escalation of force that occurred. They did in fact ask for the people to come out of the home. They did not do that. Instead they returned fire on the security forces, at which time it was -- the determination was made to call in air support against that building. And that's when those casualties occurred.
In terms of targeting, there's -- we do know that we have had in the past women that have been utilized here in country against coalition forces. We know we've seen a suicide bomber do that. We know there have been others detained at other points with things, but that is not a prevalent technique we've seen. It's very normally rare. It's not widespread. Mostly terrorists we continue to operate against are in fact males.
You know, I -- I've got to tell you: any time you conduct an operation and there's the loss of any life, it's very unfortunate. And you know, when -- even this raid in Baqubah -- you know, it's extremely unfortunate whenever there's the loss of life. And nobody's quite sure what the connection was to all those people were firing their weapons from that home, but it's unfortunate that anybody ever has to die. And that's the intent behind why the request we made to please come out peacefully from the home, rather than even use weapons, small arms or anything else, first. Q Fire coming from two homes or one home?
GEN. CALDWELL: As they came into the objective area, they did receive it from different places. But once the loudspeakers were used to tell them to come out of the home, the firing from around -- when it appeared that people understood that these were security forces conducting a deliberate operation against a specific target, pretty much ceased, according to on-ground reports. And the firing was only from the one building in question at that point.
Q And helicopter or airplane?
GEN. CALDWELL: It was an aerial asset that was used to engage the house.
Q (Off mike.)
GEN. CALDWELL: We -- it -- no, I'd have to get -- I'm not sure -- I do know what the asset was, but I'd have to go back and get clearance on the exact -- but it was an aerial asset that was used.
Q Can you tell us who these people were?
STAFF: Wait for the microphones, please, and raise your hands. We have to translate.
Q I'm sorry. Who were these people? What were you looking for in this house?
GEN. CALDWELL: Until we can ascertain whether or not we -- we did detain some people off the objective, and until we know whether or not we in fact got them, we would not want to state why we went there, because if they're not the people in question, then those people would know we're after them for sure. But obviously, we will release that information once all the positive identification is complete and analysis made, because they did bring some additional things off the objective too that will go through a sensitive site exploitation.
Okay, thank you very much.
END.
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