Sunday, June 11, 2006

Coalition Forces Destroy Insurgent Vehicle; Marines Aid Wounded Iraqi Children

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2006 – Coalition forces destroyed a truck used by terrorists to attack a patrol base southwest of Baghdad and uncovered multiple weapons caches last week, U.S. military officials reported.

Four terrorists fired two 82 mm mortar rounds at the patrol base June 6. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, engaged the terrorists, wounding one.

Coalition forces discovered a sniper scope, a complete 82 mm mortar system, several rifles, satchels containing unidentifiable ordnance, and two racks with four AK-47 magazines in the terrorists' truck. The vehicle was destroyed to prevent its future use in attacks, military officials said.

In addition, Bastogne soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, and members of the Iraqi security forces discovered three weapons caches in the area surrounding Kirkuk June 7.

Soldiers from the 1st Brigade's 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, received a report from Iraqi police in the village of Laylan of three men hiding a mortar system in a culvert on the side of a road. The police secured the mortar system until a demolition team arrived to dispose of the material. The men who stashed the system escaped before the police arrived at the scene, officials said.

In a separate incident, two bags filled with rockets were discovered southwest of Kirkuk after a local resident provided information to the Iraqi army. A third cache consisting of mortar rounds was discovered northwest of the city.

Also in Iraq, U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers operating in western Anbar province aided with the medical evacuation of two Iraqi boys who sustained wounds from an improvised explosive device June 9, military officials said.

The Marines were manning a traffic control point on a road about two kilometers east of Ar Rutbah when the boys' uncle approached them to request medical assistance for his wounded nephews.

The uncle said the boys were watching sheep about seven kilometers north of Ar Rutbah when the makeshift bomb exploded.

Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines rendered first aid and coordinated the medical evacuation of the two boys to a nearby U.S. military medical facility. The boys were assessed by U.S. military medical personnel to be in stable condition and were transported to a U.S. military hospital in Balad for further treatment.

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