Homemade Bomb Kills, Injures Children in Iraq

Dispatches from the Front:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2008 -- Iraqi and coalition forces responded to an explosion yesterday that killed and injured Iraqi children in southern Baghdad’s Rashid district, military officials reported.

Three children were killed and two were injured when a homemade bomb detonated in the neighborhood, police from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division reported. U.S. soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team arrived on the scene to conduct a post-blast analysis.

"This attack is a tragedy and clearly demonstrates that the cowardly enemy will stoop to the lowest level to commit atrocious attacks on innocent children," said Army Lt. Col. Paul Hossenlopp, deputy commander of the 1st BCT.

"The soldiers of the 1st BCT partner with the brave volunteers of the [Iraqi security forces] who work daily to free the streets and neighborhoods of Rashid from the extreme violence of terrorists," he said.

In other operations yesterday:

• Coalition forces and Iraqi police captured 22 wanted people, two days after a Sons of Iraq citizen security group checkpoint was attacked in the northern city of Siniyah. The operation was aimed at finding people who did not choose to clear their names during the reconciliation period over the past few months in the adjacent city of Beiji, officials said. Some were also being sought for possible involvement in the checkpoint attack.

• Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team discovered a bomb next to a school in southern Baghdad’s Hadar community after receiving a tip from a concerned Iraqi citizen. An explosive ordnance disposal unit arrived on the scene and properly disposed of the 130 mm projectile.

• Soldiers serving with the 25th Infantry Division’s 14th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team seized a rocket, three 60 mm mortar rounds, five 120 mm mortar rounds and eight rocket-propelled grenade warheads north of Baghdad. Later in the evening, Iraqi soldiers found a 60 mm mortar round, a hand grenade and an RPG while on patrol in the Kadhamiyah district of Baghdad.

In other developments, soldiers assigned to the 4th Infantry Division’s 6th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team worked with Iraqi soldiers to seize a weapons cache in Baghdad’s Sadr City district Sept. 24.

The munitions included six grenades, two grenade fuses, nearly three pounds of Iranian-manufactured C-4 explosives, two improvised firing devices, an electronic blasting cap and about 25 pounds of C-4 explosives in a garbage bag.

On Sept. 23, Marines assigned to Multinational Force West discovered an old weapons stockpile near Haditha. The Marines, with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines, discovered the munitions while on patrol 20 miles west of the city. Among the contents of the find were about 10,000 82 mm rounds, 106 155 mm rounds, one 100 mm projectile, 19 rockets, and one rocket tube.

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

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