33 Detained in Iraq; Insurgent Training Site Destroyed

American Forces Press Service

Jan. 29, 2007 – Coalition forces detained 33 insurgents and destroyed a terrorist training facility this week in operations across Iraq.
In raids in Iraq yesterday:

-- Coalition forces in Karmah captured 11 suspected terrorists, including a high-level al Qaeda courier with ties to senior al Qaeda in Iraq personnel.

-- Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, with Iraqi army troops, detained seven suspected insurgents near Baghdad. The insurgents are allegedly responsible for acts of terrorism in the region.

-- Coalition forces detained four suspects responsible for facilitating foreign fighter movement in Bayji.

-- Coalition forces in Baghdad captured three individuals with ties to senior al Qaeda in Iraq leadership.

-- Coalition forces detained three suspected terrorists, including the leader of an IED cell, in Ramadi.

Also this week in Iraq, soldiers from Company D, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, and Iraqi army soldiers found and destroyed a suspected insurgent training site Jan. 27 while patrolling northwest of Samarra.

At the site, combined forces found 20 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, one 82 mm mortar tube with a base plate, four 60 mm mortar tubes with base plates, a car battery and more than 7,000 large caliber machine gun rounds. An explosive ordnance disposal team destroyed the weapons and buildings.

In Baghdad on Jan. 27:

-- Paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), with Iraqi police, discovered two large weapons caches, containing 669 57 mm mortar rounds.

-- Fifteen Iraqis died when two car bombs detonated in a New Baghdad commercial district.

-- A Sunni mosque was damaged during heavy fighting between insurgents and neighborhood residents in a southwestern section of the city.

In a separate operation that day, paratroopers of Company A, 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, with Iraqi army soldiers, found and secured an IED west of Iskandariyah.

The day before, paratroopers from Companies A and C, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division had detained five suspected insurgents attempting to emplace an IED in a town 20 miles south of Baghdad.

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