THE TENSION: Forces In Iraq Kill Two, Detain 21 Terrorism Suspects

Dispatches from the Front:

WASHINGTON, May 15, 2008 -- Coalition forces killed two terrorism suspects and detained 21 others during operations across Iraq today.

Fifteen miles west of Baghdad, coalition forces targeted an individual suspected of managing vehicle-bomb attacks. Two were killed and three were caught at the compound. Forces recovered a rifle and a case of hand grenades.

Forces captured a man suspected of smuggling illegal weapons into Iraq and three others in the Mansour district in Baghdad. Forces first nabbed the man, and he then gave up the location of the others.

Coalition and Iraqi forces joined to target terrorist elements in and around Mosul. They caught one suspect southeast of Mosul. In Mosul, forces caught a man suspected of handling car bombings and of bringing foreign terrorists into the country. Two others were detained in the operations.

Coalition forces in Beiji captured three wanted men and seven other suspects. Two of the wanted men are alleged foreign terrorist facilitators associated with suicide bombings, and the other is believed to be part of a car-bombing network in the Tigris River valley.

Yesterday in Iraq, a female suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi army battle position 12 miles south of Baghdad. One Iraqi soldier was killed and seven were wounded.

Also yesterday, soldiers killed five enemy fighters in operations in western Baghdad. U.S. soldiers were attacked by the fighters using small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in Kadamiyah. The soldiers killed four attackers. Later, soldiers received sniper fire from a building in Kadamiyah. An aerial weapons team fired a Hellfire missile, killing one attacker.

In other operations across Iraq:

A bomb-laden motorcycle exploded in Kirkuk on May 13. The motorcycle was parked outside an elementary school on a route that leads to an open market. Reports are that a car was destroyed and 12 civilians were injured in the blast.

Iraqi police caught a man May 13 wanted for several murders in the Shurta community.

U.S. soldiers found a rocket-propelled grenade with launcher and ammunition in the Jihad community May 13.

In the Karb De Gla community May 13, members of the “Sons of Iraq,” a citizen security group, turned in more than 100 pounds of plastic explosives to U.S. soldiers.

U.S. soldiers recovered a weapons cache May 12 in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad following a tip from a local citizen. Soldiers recovered about 200 feet of detonation cord, 50 blasting caps, 200 rounds of ammunition and several timers.

On May 12, U.S and Iraqi army soldiers recovered a weapons cache in the Doura community. A local tip led to the cache holding a 155 mm artillery round, rocket-propelled grenade rounds, RPG launchers, machine guns, ammunition, body armor, homemade hand grenades, homemade explosives, and hundreds of items used to make homemade explosives.

Iraqi army soldiers recovered a weapons cache near Say Fahal village, southwest of Baghdad, May 12. The cache included explosive devices, more than 180 60 mm mortar rounds, 130 mm high-explosive projectiles, a 122 mm rocket, and a 155 mm rocket along with fuses and ammunition.