Forces in Iraq Round Up Two Dozen Terror Suspects

American Forces Press Service

Nov. 7, 2008 - Coalition troops captured 24 suspected terrorists throughout Iraq today and yesterday, dealing a blow to al-Qaida in Iraq in multiple locations, military officials reported. -- In Tikrit, forces captured an alleged terrorist finance administrator and detained a man assessed to be his associate.

-- In three synchronized operations in Kirkuk, coalition and Iraqi forces captured two suspected terrorists and detained seven others for questioning.

-- About 60 miles south of Kirkuk, another coalition operation targeted and captured a suspected weapons facilitator for al-Qaida in Iraq in the Tigris River Valley. Four more suspects also were detained.

-- In Baghdad, coalition forces captured a man suspected of being an al-Qaida in Iraq administrative operative in the city.

-- Near Tarmiyah, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, forces detained seven suspects believed to be associates of a long-time terrorist operative in Anbar province.

-- In Mosul, forces captured a suspected terrorist believed to have links to international al-Qaida networks, officials said. The man, who is also believed to be a financial administrator, was detained with three additional suspects.

-- Iraqi security forces captured five suspected terrorists in separate operations Nov. 4 and 5 throughout central Iraq. They include a man in Baghdad believed responsible for a rocket attack on Forward Operating Base Warhorse in June, two suspected criminal leaders in Hashimiyah, another man in Baghdad suspected of kidnappings and killings in Karkh, and a man in Amarah suspected of attacks on troops.

-- Iraqi police prevented a vehicle-borne explosion when they discovered the wired car in eastern Mosul yesterday.

-- Iraqi forces and soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 27 Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, dismantled a concrete block encasing a 125 mm rocket. They also seized two weapons caches containing a land mine, ammunition, propaganda, cell phones, circuit boards and body armor at a suspected terrorist safe house.

-- Soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, seized four weapons caches Nov. 4 in the Hawijah area of Kirkuk province. The cache included rocket-propelled grenade launchers, more than 200 mortar rounds, artillery and rocket rounds and bomb-making materials.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)