THE TENSION: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Kills Six Armed Criminals Near Baghdad

An MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle takes off in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Predator provides armed reconnaissance, airborne surveillance and target acquisition for Iraq. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Rob Valenca)

Dispatches from the Front:

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2008 (AFPS) -- A Hellfire missile fired from a coalition unmanned aerial vehicle killed six heavily armed criminals in northeastern Baghdad yesterday, military officials reported.

Officials said coalition forces from Multinational Division Baghdad operating the UAV fired on a large group of criminals with rocket-propelled-grenade launchers and a mortar tube.

In other operations in Iraq yesterday:

Soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team found a weapons cache in Janabi. It contained a wide variety of ammunition and illumination rounds, propellant, fuses, a hand grenade, TNT and other bomb-making materials. The cache was turned over to an explosives team for detonation.

A Multinational Division Baghdad aerial weapons team saw three men at a potential rocket site in northeastern Baghdad. When the men caught site of the team, they fled the scene in a black sedan. But when a UAV showed the criminals returning to the site and confirmed the presence of rockets, the team returned and destroyed three rockets with a Hellfire missile. The criminals fled the scene. The presence of two additional rockets was confirmed at a different site a short time later. The team also destroyed those rockets with a Hellfire missile.

In a separate event, a UAV showed a rocket launch site and positively identified a vehicle used in the earlier attack in northeastern Baghdad. The UAV hit the sedan with a Hellfire missile.

Iraqi soldiers discovered more than 30 bodies in a mass grave at a house in Mahmudiyah on April 10. Initial reports indicate the remains had been buried for more than a year. The entire house has been declared a grave site, and the Iraqi army is excavating the area.

During operations in Iraq on April 9, soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team discovered a weapons cache in Baghdad’s Rashid district. The cache included multiple mortar rounds and bomb-making materials, rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, a rocket-propelled grenade with launcher, a sniper rifle, blasting caps, and detonation cord.

Earlier this week in Iraq:

Iraqi security forces detained two suspected al-Qaida bomb-making-cell members and one insurgent cell leader in separate operations.

The Anbar Counterterrorism Directorate, advised by U.S. Special Forces soldiers, conducted an operation to capture members of an al-Qaida bomb-making cell operating out of the Albu Faraj area of Ramadi. The cell is accused of multiple attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces, including a homemade-bomb attack March 25. The group also owned a homemade-bomb cache found by the Albu Faraj police March 30. Two cell members were detained during the operation.

In Mosul, 2nd Iraqi Army Division soldiers, also advised by U.S. Special Forces soldiers, captured the suspected leader of seven "battalions" of insurgents throughout Mosul. His cells are believed to be responsible for bombings and indirect-fire attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces, including two suicide-vest attacks against tactical control points in eastern Mosul on March 13.