Citizens' Tips Help Foil Baghdad Attack, Lead Soldiers to Weapons

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2006 – Tips from Iraqi citizens led coalition and Iraqi soldiers to foil a terrorist attack and find weapons caches in Baghdad yesterday, U.S. military officials in Iraq reported. A concerned Iraqi citizen's tip led Iraqi army soldiers to a shop south of Baghdad last night, where they found a munitions cache. Soldiers from 4th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, investigated the carpentry shop and seized 58 homemade bombs, three rocket-propelled-grenade boosters, and two improvised explosive devices attached to batteries. Iraqi soldiers also detained a suspected terrorist at the site and seven others suspected of plotting an upcoming attack on a traffic control point.

Elsewhere, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers searched three houses last night and seized weapons and a large amount of money in central Baghdad after acting on a tip from an Iraqi citizen. At the first house, soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, discovered ammunition and two body armor vests. As the soldiers continued to search the house, they found a false wall that contained mortar rounds and more ammunition. In an adjoining house, the soldiers found AK-47 rifles, bloody clothes and terrorist propaganda. In a third house that appeared to have been used as a sniper position, the soldiers found spent shell casings and $17,000 in U.S. currency.

When the raids concluded, Multinational Division Baghdad troops seized a 60 mm mortar tube with base plate, 100 60 mm and 81 mm mortar rounds, four AK-47s with magazines, a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher, two 102 mm rockets, two hand grenades, five cases of 7.62 mm ammunition and various bomb-making materials. Soldiers removed the smaller weapons and an explosive ordnance disposal team conducted a controlled detonation to destroy the larger munitions.

In another operation, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers and Iraqi police seized explosives last night after searching a building north of Baghdad. While conducting a dismounted combined patrol, soldiers from 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, and Iraqi police were attacked by terrorists using small-arms fire from an apartment complex.

The soldiers and police searched the building and found five blocks of explosives, an AK-47 and ammunition. Six suspects were questioned and taken into custody in connection with the incident.