Good News From Iraq

Iraqi Forces Capture Insurgent In Mosul

BALAD – Iraqi forces from the 2nd Iraqi Army Division, together with coalition force advisers, conducted an early-morning raid in Mosul on July 18, capturing an anti-Iraqi force cell member.

The Iraqi soldiers raided an objective in central Mosul and captured the cell member who is believed to be involved in emplacing improvised explosive devices, or IEDs in the area.

Seven other individuals also were captured during this operation.

No Iraqi or coalition forces were injured during the operation.

Iraqi army, MND-B Soldiers nab weapons, kill two terrorists, detain 8
BAGHDAD – Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, captured and detained a suspected terrorist at a checkpoint northwest of Baghdad at approximately 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The suspect was traveling with a woman and four children, all under the age of two years old, in a vehicle carrying multiple mortar systems, three 130mm rounds and two directional charges.

The suspected terrorist was detained by the Iraqi army.

In a separate event Soldiers from Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division were attacked by small-arms fire while conducting area reconnaissance at about 3 p.m. were attacked by small-arms fire in an outlying area of southwestern Baghdad. The Soldiers returned fire on their attackers after searching the area; they found the bodies of two dead terrorists and detained seven others.

Soldiers confiscated six AK-47s, two drums of 7.62mm ammunition, a pistol with a magazine, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher with a round attached and ready to fire.

Telephone tip leads to capture of 4 terrorist cell members
BAGHDAD – Iraqi police and Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s 1st Battalion, 66th Armor, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division detained four terrorist cell members Sunday afternoon after receiving a call from a concerned citizen, who informed them of an attack planned against the Rashadia police station.

The telephone tip warned that attackers had surrounded the police station; Soldiers from 1st Bn., 66th Armor, 1st BCT responded to the area to provide assistance to Iraqi police.

After exchanging gunfire, the terrorists attempted to escape Iraqi police and MND-B Soldiers pursued them. Four local citizens stopped the fleeing suspects, and the Iraqi police took them into custody.

According to information gleaned from the individuals taken into custody, their plan was to attack the police station because they wanted to kill two terrorist leaders they believed were being held there.

Iraqi, MND-B Soldiers uncover weapons cache
Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO
BAGHDAD – Iraqi soldiers from 2nd Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division, and Soldiers from Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, unearthed a weapons cache at approximately 2 a.m. today.

The Soldiers were conducting a search of an area that had previously yielded a weapons cache when they located a new cache of weapons, containing 24 bayonets, an RPK machine gun, a G-3 assault rifle, five hand grenades, two 30mm rounds, 300 7.62mm rounds, 200 rounds of assorted ammunition, four parachute flares, a mortar site, assorted military gear and 55,000 Iraqi Dinar.

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi national security advisor announced the recent killing of several al-Qaida terrorist group leaders and the capture of others during a press conference here yesterday.

Calling it “a major blow to al-Qaida in Iraq,” Dr. Mouwafak al-Rubaie said Iraqi security forces killed the leader of a group known as Omar Corps, a death squad established by al-Qaida to inflame sectarian violence.

He said Omar Corps is responsible for hundreds of killings and for a deadly explosion in Sadr city, a Baghdad neighborhood, on July 1.

He said the group recruited terrorists by promising they would fight Iranians in Iraq, but said the group is being used to kill innocent Iraqis instead.

Al-Rubaie said tips led the ISF members to capture four of the terrorist leaders and that the information gathered would help bring more death squad members to justice.

“By joining efforts from our intelligence and our security forces, we were able to kill and capture those coward terrorist leaders. We will continue to destroy the terrorism and terrorists anywhere, regardless of any names they use to hide their identities and intention,” al-Rubaie said.

JOINT STATEMENT BY
U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ ZALMAY KHALILZAD AND
COMMANDER, MNF-I, GENERAL GEORGE CASEY
July 19, 2006

We condemn in the strongest possible language the recent attacks by terrorists and death squads against innocent Iraqi civilians in Kufa and Mahmoudiya. We express our heartfelt condolences to all the family members who lost a loved one in these vicious attacks, and for all the Iraqi people who suffer at the hands of these criminals.

The Kufa bombing was carried out by terrorists who seek to exploit Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian fault lines, and to provoke an all out civil war through attacks against Iraqi civilians and holy sites such as the al Askariya mosque in February. The Iraqi government and its Coalition partners will continue to hunt down and bring these murderers to justice as we did with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Abdul Rahman al-Afghani.

The Mahmoudiya attack was carried out by death squads who, like the terrorists responsible for the Kufa bombing, seek to murder and oppress the Iraqi people in pursuit of their agenda. Iraqis participating in these criminal endeavors should not be misled by those who claim they are defending Iraq through these attacks. In reality, these false leaders are using them as pawns for their own narrow sectarian designs.

Like people everywhere, Iraqis seek peace, stability, and prosperity, and to live according to democratic principles which respect the rights of all Iraqi citizens. We recognize that Iraqis’ patience with these murderers has expired. We call on the Iraqi people to unite against the terrorists and death squads, and to support the Iraqi security forces by providing information about their activities. We call on Iraqi leaders to take responsibility and pursue reconciliation not just in words, but through deeds as well. And we call on Iraqi government officials to begin to build upon Prime Minister Maliki’s bold reconciliation proposal, and to enact a plan to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate all unauthorized military formations in Iraq.

We mourn the loss of every Iraqi and are determined to help the Iraqi government bring peace to all Iraqis and to restore dignity and security to this great nation. We therefore pledge to work with the Iraqi government and security forces to treat the death squads as the same critical threat to Iraqi security as the terrorists who target Iraqi civilians, and to deal with them in the same manner.

God bless the people of Iraq.

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