Good News From Iraq

INP, MND-B MPs detain suspected weapons smugglers

BAGHDAD – Iraqi police, with the assistance of Soldiers from 615th Military Police Company, attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, detained 10 suspected weapons smugglers Thursday in West al-Mansour.

The 33 weapons were confiscated in addition to more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition, nine body armor vests and various bomb-making materials. The suspects also had currency worth more than $3,000 in Iraqi Dinar, U.S. Dollars and Syrian Pounds.

The suspected smugglers are being detained for questioning by the Iraqi police.

Iraqi, Coalition forces capture 30 insurgents, 38 suspected insurgents

CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq – Iraqi police and soldiers, along with U.S. Marines and soldiers from Regimental Combat Team 7, detained 30 confirmed insurgents and 38 suspected insurgents over the weekend throughout the western Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

RCT-7 is the U.S. military unit responsible for western Anbar Province, an area of more than 30,000 square-miles which stretches from the Jordanian and Syrian borders hundreds of miles east to Hit, a city about 70 miles northwest of Ramadi.

U.S. and Iraqi forces detained the known and suspected insurgents through a series of pre-planned and routine counterinsurgency operations.

Iraqi police identified and detained 18 of the 38 captured suspected insurgents in Rawah, Iraq – a city of about 20,000 along the Euphrates River, about 50 miles east of the Iraqi-Syrian border.

One of the suspects captured by Rawah police officers is wanted for suspected involvement with a vehicle suicide bombing against a U.S. military check point in the region July 29. Several more captured in Rawah are suspected of involvement with a recent attack on a Rawah police officer’s family. Police officers in Rawah also discovered two improvised explosive devices there Sunday.

Iraqi and U.S. soldiers detained one known insurgent and 10 suspected insurgents Sunday in Hit, a city of about 60,000, located approximately 70 miles northwest of Ramadi.

Through a variety of counterinsurgency operations Saturday and Sunday, Iraqi police, Iraqi soldiers, and U.S. Marines captured 27 known insurgents and four suspected insurgents in the Haditha Triad, a cluster of three cities – Haditha, Barwanah, and Haqlaniyah – with a combined population of about 90,000. One captured insurgent was part of a four-man insurgent cell operating in Hadithah, another is suspected of having involvement with various small arms attacks against a U.S. base in Barwanah.

U.S. Marines captured six more suspected insurgents Saturday in Sa’dah, a town just east of the Iraqi-Syrian border. Marines also discovered an ordnance cache near the border on Saturday. The cache consisted of 120 mm rockets, 155 mm rockets, and 122 mm rockets.

IA soldiers seize weapons cache in mosque, MND-B Soldiers detain 4 suspected terrorists

Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO

BAGHDAD – Iraqi army soldiers from the 9th Iraqi Army Division, seized a large weapons cache at approximately 10 a.m. Saturday after searching the Al-Nida Mosque in northern Baghdad.

The IA soldiers seized 20 AK-47 assault rifles, 55 AK-47 magazines, a PKC rifle and 600 PKC rounds.

Elsewhere, Soldiers from Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, detained four suspected terrorists Saturday at approximately 9:45 a.m. after a search of the suspects’ home in southern Baghdad netted a weapons cache.

Soldiers discovered three AK-47 assault rifles, a Glock pistol, a grenade and an unidentified amount of loose armor-piercing rounds.

In another incident, Iraqi army soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, detained a terrorist suspect at approximately 10:25 a.m. southeast of Baghdad after they found instructional cassette tapes on how to conduct terrorist attacks in his vehicle.

As of Saturday, Iraqi Security Forces and MND-B have cleared 45,800 buildings, 49 mosques and 39 muhallas, detained 75 terrorist suspects, seized more than 1,000 weapons, registered more than 425 weapons and found 26 weapons caches. The combined forces have also replaced more than 1,152 doors, 38 windows and 1,366 locks damaged during clearing operations and have removed more than 25,561 cubic meters of trash from the streets of Baghdad.

Stryker Brigade Soldiers continue security operations in Adhamiyah - By Sgt. Kristin Kemplin
363rd MPAD
BAGHDAD – In the early morning hours of Aug. 29, Soldiers of Multi-National Division –Baghdad’s 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team piled into heavily-armored vehicles and rolled into a cordoned section of Baghdad to continue clearing operations as part of Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s Operation Together Forward.

This was the third day in a row that Soldiers of 1st Platoon, Troop A, 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 172nd SBCT and members of the Iraqi National Police had patrolled this neighborhood, located on the outskirts of an Iraqi National Police station, looking for weapons caches and other signs of possible terrorist activity.

The platoon set out to clear a sector in northern Adhamiyah as part of the brigade’s mission, “to quell sectarian violence in certain city hot spots,” said Capt. Duane Waits, 1st platoon leader, Troop A, 4th Sqdn., 14th Cav. Regt.

The platoon, working with a dog team from 67th Specialized Search Dogs Detachment, 5th Engineer Battalion, 16th Engineer Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, was able to clear approximately 130 residences and businesses in three days of operating in the area.

“Our mission today was to root out any weapons caches, find any foreign fighters and (eventually) bring some peace and normalcy to the area,” said Waits, a native of Littlerock, Ark.

The platoon’s two-fold mission also involved collecting information from residents about trouble in the neighborhood as well as general information about the local populace.

“We have been going more or less, house to house, getting a census of the community to see who lives where, what’s going on and what problems they have been having in the neighborhoods,” said Spc. Phillip Page, Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 4th Sqdn., 14th Cav. Regt.

“For example, we are trying to gain information about terrorists groups in the area and how they are affecting the populace, and as a result, how the populace feels about Coalition Forces coming into this neighborhood,” explained Page, who is aided in these efforts by an interpreter.

“We want the local residents to feel comfortable enough to tell us what’s going on and to lead us in the right direction to track down these terrorists,” said Waits.

Many agricultural businesses operate within Adhamiyah, growing everything from date palm trees to garden vegetables. “Most of the residents we have spoken with are farmers,” said Page, a native of Alliance, Ohio. “They are good people who have been living in the area for quite a while and just trying to make a living for themselves,” he said.

The Soldiers also came across a kindergarten school that had recently come under fire from mortars launched by terrorists.

The terrorists were aiming at the Iraqi National Police station nearby, explained the head security guard for an Adhamiyah kindergarten school through an interpreter. “If (these patrols) happen more times, maybe the terrorists would leave,” he said.

He said he has lived in the neighborhood for seven years, has observed the area change for the worse, he said, and feels the current security operations being conducted in Adhamiyah will be good for the neighborhood.

“Even my babies, they see Americans and Iraqi (security) forces and they feel safe because they think this will give security to them,” said the father of three.

“A lot of the residents I have spoken with said as soon as we rolled in (three days ago), the terrorists, or whoever was taking over this area, rolled out. Violence has gone down and it seems pretty peaceful,” said Page.

“Our kids have only experienced war time,” said Hussein. “We hope we never see another war. We hope our kids live in peace.”

No weapons caches or terrorists were discovered in the third day of operations within the neighborhood.

Apaches blast terrorist vehicles
BAGHDAD — Two Longbow Apache helicopters provided air-to-ground support to American Soldiers on Sunday by blasting enemy vehicles during action in western Baghdad, U.S. officials reported.

The flight of choppers from Multi-National Division - Baghdad’s Combat Aviation Brigade teamed up to assist U.S. ground forces from the division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.

The combined effort resulted in one terrorist killed, four captured and two terrorist vehicles destroyed, officials said.

The Apache crews were conducting a combat air patrol mission when they received the call to assist. At about 4:45 p.m., the pilots noticed two abandoned vehicles near where the attack was reported.

“The vehicles were staged for the (terrorists), who tried to engage the infantry guys,” explained Army Maj. Byron Needum, one of the Apache pilots.

“When we got there, the infantry had already got the best of them and detained three. They were still looking for more,” Needum continued. “That’s when we found the vehicles. The vehicles didn’t fit the situation.”

Apache teams rarely have to engage the enemy once they arrive on the scene, Needum said.

“Normally when we get there, people don’t want to ‘play’ anymore,” he explained. “Even if we don’t engage the enemy, our presence alone helps the ground guys out.”

Helicopter crews have a picture-window view of enemy activity on the ground, Needum said. That advantage is often used to support U.S. ground forces.

“We have a different vantage point, and we can see farther than you can on the ground,” said Needum. “I don’t think they would have seen those (enemy) vehicles without us.”

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