Troops in Iraq Nab 10 Suspects, Find Weapons

Dispatches from the Front:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2008 -- Coalition and Iraqi forces detained 10 suspected terrorists and found numerous weapons caches in recent operations in Baghdad and other areas of Iraq, military officials reported.

Coalition forces detained eight suspected terrorists in central and northern Iraq today while targeting operatives involved in al-Qaida in Iraq bombing networks.

• Forces in Baghdad captured a wanted man with suspected ties to several al-Qaida networks, including foreign-terrorist-facilitation and bombing cells. He also is believed to associate with longtime al-Qaida in Iraq leaders, some of whom were detained in 2006.

• Using information from an Aug. 9 operation, coalition forces detained six suspected terrorists in Mosul, including a wanted man who allegedly is associated with financial support for terrorists in the city.

• In Beiji, about 160 kilometers south of Mosul, coalition forces detained a suspected terrorist while targeting members of a bombing cell known for attacking first responders.

• Soldiers from Company D, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, found a cache in the Saha neighborhood consisting of two 155 mm artillery rounds and a 60 mm mortar round. An explosives ordnance disposal team collected the rounds.

In operations yesterday:

• Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, detained a suspected Iranian-backed “special groups” member during a search in the Bayaa community. The patrol delivered the suspect, an alleged cell leader responsible for emplacing roadside bombs and attacking coalition forces, to a coalition base for processing.

• Acting on a tip from a local resident, soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division’s Company C, 1st Infantry Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, seized eight rockets, a bag of small-arms ammunition, 21 cans of 12.7 mm ammunition, 19 82 mm mortars and eight 120 mm mortars in the Mushada area northwest of Baghdad. Throughout the day, soldiers recovered many more munitions, including rockets, grenades, a signal-illumination grenade, Iranian-made mortars and C-4 explosives, electrical blasting caps, small-arms ammunition, and a Dragonov rifle and scope.

• Iraqi soldiers discovered a significant cache in Baghdad’s Sadr City district. A concerned resident's tip led the soldiers to an abandoned building, where the cache was found hidden behind a false wall. The cache consisted of 22 foam-encased roadside bombs designed to penetrate armor-hulled vehicles, 65 boxes of steel ball bearings, five plastic cylinders, six car alarms, 92 12-volt rechargeable batteries, 26 C-4 demolition charges, 95 copper disks, 61 12-inch lengths of angle iron, 13 electrical blasting caps, two spools of electrical wire, and various electrical and bomb-making components.

• A woman suicide bomber detonated herself south of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi policeman and 17 citizens, and wounding 75 other citizens outside a residential area between the towns of Iskandariyah and Musayyib. The civilian victims were on a pilgrimage to Karbala to commemorate Shabaniyah in celebration of the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, the 12th Shiite imam, who disappeared in the 9th century. About 5,000 pilgrims have traversed through the same area without incident as a result of Iraqi security force operations, officials said.

In operations Aug. 13, Iraqi army and Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers removed unexploded ordnance and detained a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member in southern Baghdad’s Rashid district. Iraqi soldiers found a 155 mm artillery round and a 105 mm artillery round during clearing operations in the Saydiyah community. The Iraqi soldiers confiscated the ordnance and brought it to a nearby joint security station, where an explosives ordnance disposal unit disposed of the munitions.

Also on Aug. 13, soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, detained a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq operator in the Jihad area of Rashid who is believed to be responsible for attacks against Iraqi and coalition security forces in the district.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)

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