News From Iraq - More Stuff The BBC Wont Report

U.S. Soldiers stop kidnapper dead in his tracks

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- After a car chase and gunfight, Task Force Baghdad Soldiers rescued a kidnap victim and killed one of the abductors around noon Oct. 11.

Acting on a tip about the kidnapping of a middle-age Iraqi man, Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment planned a hasty attack in order to kill or capture the kidnappers. Within minutes, they identified the kidnappers’ vehicle and began a seven-kilometer chase that ended in west Baghdad.

The U.S. Soldiers were engaged with small-arms fire but managed to safely rescue the kidnap victim. During the exchange of gunfire, the 1/11th ACR Soldiers wounded one assailant, who was taken to the Abu Ghraib Prison Hospital where he later died.

The other kidnapper is currently in the custody of the Iraqi Police.

Iraqi, U.S. forces surprise terrorists, detain 57

BAGHDAD, Iraq – More than 600 Iraqi and U.S. forces responded to reports of terrorists operating in south Baghdad and conducted multiple cordon and searches in the early-morning hours of Oct. 11.

Troops detained 57 terror suspects and killed two others.

U.S. Soldiers from 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment linked up with Iraqi Special Police Commandos to take the terrorists by surprise. AH-64 Apache helicopters soon arrived on site to engage in the firefight.

Iraqi and U.S. forces focused on three objectives and began searching houses in the area looking for anti-Iraqi forces. These operations were mainly driven by Iraqi intelligence.

The forces acted on a report that two men were on a roof overseeing a group of terrorists emplacing improvised explosive devices.

They are always planning on killing us:

AL-QAEDA terrorists planned to hijack a passenger jet from eastern Europe and fly it into a packed terminal at Heathrow airport, killing hundreds of people, security sources have revealed. ...

It has now emerged that MI5 received detailed intelligence in February 2003 about a two-pronged plan to target Britain because of its decision to send troops in support of America’s invasion of Iraq.

The second element of the operation, inspired by Osama Bin Laden, involved a mortar attack on a departing passenger plane. It was organised by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Al-Qaeda operations chief and mastermind of the September 11 attacks, the sources said.

Iraqi, Coalition operations net terror suspects, weapons

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi and Coalition Forces continued to aggressively pursue terrorists in the capitol by capturing 34 terror suspects and seizing bomb making materials and weapons caches during more than 50 raids and searches Oct. 9.

Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police units completed seven of the combat operations independently, and took the lead on two others, working side by side with Coalition Forces.

One of the largest combat operations was conducted by members of 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team. The Soldiers entered a south Baghdad neighborhood in mid-morning and quickly cordoned off the area around their targets. Within an hour, the team searched 15 buildings, detained 15 suspected terrorists and took them into custody for questioning.

Later in the day, Task Force Baghdad Soldiers captured four terror suspects at a safe house in west Baghdad. A search of the house revealed seven AK-47 assault rifles, 8,000 rounds of ammunition and two bomb-detonating devices.

Iraqi security forces and Task Force Baghdad Soldiers also carried out more than 470 patrols and manned more than 350 traffic control points all over the city to provide security for Iraqi citizens.

Iraqi Soldiers and police conducted nearly 370 of the missions themselves and teamed with Coalition Forces on 50 others.

On one of the patrols, Coalition Forces working in the Ghartan district of south Baghdad detained two more suspected terrorists. The suspects had an AK-47 rifle with 100 rounds of ammunition, a rocket-propelled grenade sighting device and electrical switches used to detonate bombs.

PARIS/BERLIN: What prompts someone to convert to Islam and to sign up for global "holy war" in the name of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda? ** Well aside from being a fucking arsehole that is.

Security agencies are asking that question with increasing urgency as they confront a growing catalogue of actual or attempted attacks in which Muslim converts are suspected of playing prominent roles.

Richard Reid, the convicted British "shoebomber" who tried to set off explosives in his footwear on a 2001 trans-Atlantic flight, was a petty criminal who first turned to Islam during a spell in prison.

Christian Ganczarski, a German suspected of involvement in a 2002 bombing in Tunisia, converted at 20 before embarking on a jihadist career in which, investigators believe, he became a close associate of bin Laden's.

Other high-profile militant converts include Jamaican-born Germaine Lindsay, one of four suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London in July, and Briton Andrew Rowe, jailed for 15 years last month for possessing terrorist materials.

Frenchman Lionel Dumont, a suspected Rowe associate and another convert, will go on trial in December accused of a series of attacks in the 1990s, including an attempt to bomb a Group of Seven summit in Lille....

John Walker Lindh, dubbed "the American Taliban", was convicted and jailed in 2002 for fighting alongside the Afghan militia, and US citizen Jose Padilla has been held for more than three years as a suspected enemy combatant in connection with an alleged "dirty bomb" plot.

In Australia, British-born Muslim convert Jack Roche was jailed for nine years in 2004 for conspiring to bomb the Israeli embassy in Canberra....

Once they converted, the experts said, such people often moved towards violence quickly, driven partly by a need to prove themselves. They might also be more easily manipulated by extremists because they lacked the cultural grounding to distinguish between true and distorted versions of Islam.

"Basically, you can tell them just about anything and they're willing to believe it," Taarnby said. "They're not asking the right questions. They're just accepting what they're being told at face value."

Hunch leads to large weapons cache

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq – Soldiers from B Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment discovered a very large weapons cache Oct. 10 in the Abu Ghraib district.

The unit had been conducting cordon-and-search operations in the neighborhood and was just about to leave, but—acting on a hunch—they remained at the site for another two hours, digging for buried munitions.

This is the seventh cache discovered in October by this unit.

The day began with the Soldiers searching a residence suspected of harboring terrorist activity. Using metal detectors, the unit began to get positive detections and, after staying in the area, unearthed a large cache.

The cache included 13 mortar rounds, five rocket-propelled grenade rounds, four rifle grenades, two RPG launchers, a mortar tube, a 55-gallon drum with explosives, six bundles of fuses, 67 RPG propellants, and 110 explosive timers.

“This is an example of how a Soldier’s intuition and experiences have resulted in uncovering another cache,” said Capt. Ryan Keys, B Troop commander. “I am proud of the hard work and dedication that every Soldier has been putting into this mission here,” he said. “The terrorists are learning that it is just a matter of time before we find their next cache.”

U.S. aviation, infantry forces hunt down terrorists

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Task Force Baghdad aviation and ground forces combined efforts to defeat terrorists in south Baghdad Oct. 9.

Blackhawk helicopters, assigned to 4th Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment (Assault Helicopter), and Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment flew to the area for cordon-and-search missions of more than 30 houses.

One terrorist was killed and 15 others were detained during the combat operations.

The mission was focused on capturing terrorists believed to be responsible for improvised explosive device attacks last month.

Also on the US suicide bomber, it looks from the lack of reporting that there is some sort of US Govt cover up, probably some agency trying to play stuff down. This site has a cool bit on it www.wben.com/onair/bauerle/index.php/

Excerpt: (see northeast Intelligence Network - link on sidebar)

"Norman Police have confirmed that Hinrichs was briefly investigated days before the bombing when he tried to purchase ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Ammonium nitrate is the same chemical used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and killed 168 people."

Excerpt: "FBI agent Gary Johnson, who is heading the investigation from the bureau's Oklahoma City office, declined to confirm or deny that TATP was used in the bombing or was found in the subsequent search of Hinrichs' apartment.

The search lasted at least 24 hours but no information has been released concerning what investigators actually discovered -- Hagmann's confidential sources report finding TATP and "jihad materials" on his computer - because the search warrant was sealed by the Department of Justice.

When asked if NIN's reports are consistent with the FBI investigation, Johnson said, "No," then added, Well okay the stuff that's found in his apartment, I can't comment on [be]cause it's part of a search warrant that's sealed."

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