Coalition Forces Detain Seven in Central, Northern Iraq

American Forces Press Service

April 10, 2008 - Coalition forces detained seven suspected terrorists during operations targeting al-Qaida in central and northern Iraq today.
-- In Taji, coalition forces detained two suspected terrorists during operations targeting associates of terrorist leaders in the Baghdad's northern belt.

-- Two additional suspects were detained in Mosul during a mission targeting an individual who allegedly oversees al-Qaida attack operations in the area.

-- West of Baghdad, coalition forces targeted al-Qaida operatives in Abu Ghraib, detaining three suspected terrorists.

In yesterday's Iraq operations:

-- Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team manning a combined checkpoint with Iraqi national police were attacked by criminals with small-arms fire from a rooftop in northeastern Baghdad. Soldiers returned fire and killed one criminal.

-- Members of the 101st Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team killed four criminals in northwestern Baghdad after they were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades at a checkpoint.

-- An aerial weapons team engaged criminals who attacked soldiers with small-arms fire as they placed concrete barriers at a joint security station in northeastern Baghdad. The aerial weapons team fired two Hellfire missiles at the criminals, killing four.

-- Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team killed four criminals after being attacked with small-arms fire from two different locations in northwestern Baghdad.

-- A mission in Taji focused on a terrorist believed to work directly with terrorist leaders in Baghdad's southern belt. He was identified while driving with another individual. Ignoring coalition attempts to stop the vehicle, the terrorists tried to evade capture. Coalition forces engaged the vehicle to stop it, killing the two terrorists inside.

-- An operation in Mosul netted two suspects when coalition forces targeted a terrorist believed responsible for assassinations, kidnappings and the facilitation of suicide bombings. Coalition forces surrounded the area and cleared the targeted building, as well as several others in the neighborhood, detaining two suspected terrorists in the process.

-- Members of the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, currently attached to the 1st Infantry Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team, acted on a tip from a concerned Iraqi citizen and detained a suspect. The suspect, believed to be the leader of an improvised explosive device production cell, responsible for making armor-piercing explosively formed projectiles, was detained during a cordon-and-search operation in the Aamel Beladiya neighborhood of Baghdad's Rashid district. The soldiers also discovered a homemade bomb.

In operations in Iraq on April 8:

-- With the assistance of Karbala police, members of 33rd Iraqi Army Brigade conducted an intelligence-driven operation targeting a house in Husayniyah, south of Baghdad. The Iraqi forces discovered a large weapons cache and detained six criminal suspects. The cache included a homemade bomb, a 60 mm mortar tube, rifles, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, and small-arms rounds. It also included blocks of C4 explosive, which were dated from 2007 and appeared to be Iranian-produced, according to an intelligence officer for Military Transition Team 33.

-- Members of 3rd Company, 4th Battalion, 25th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, turned over a cache found in Arab Jassim that included 155 mm artillery rounds, empty pipes and 50 pipe caps.

-- A local Iraqi turned in a cache containing a primer, various munitions rounds, and a 15-pound bag with a mixture of munitions pellets, diesel and fertilizer to Patrol Base Warrior Keep. Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's Company D, 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, stored the munitions for inspection by an explosive ordnance disposal team.

In operations in Iraq earlier this week, Iraqi security forces and the local "Sons of Iraq" citizen security group discovered 11 weapons caches during operations spanning two days. Five caches were discovered in Diyala province, along with two caches each in Tamim, Ninevah and Salahuddin provinces. They consisted of rockets, mortars, projectiles of different sizes and hundreds of pounds of bomb-making materials.

(From Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)