Posted on 06/19/2005 11:21:55 PM PDT by TexKat
Iraqi, Coalition Forces Kill, Capture Terrorists, Seize Weapons
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 20, 2005 – Iraqi security forces and multinational forces killed two terrorists, detained 17 terror suspects, and seized a large cache of weapons in northern Iraq June 19, military officials said today.
Iraqi soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 3rd Iraqi Army Division, killed two terrorists after being attacked with small-arms fire in Tal Afar. Also in Tal Afar, soldiers from the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, detained a suspected terrorist after being attacked while on patrol.
Iraqi forces from the 1st Battalion, 4th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division, detained 12 individuals suspected of terrorist activity during a cordon-and-search operation in northern Mosul.
Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, detained three terror suspects during a raid in central Mosul, and soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, detained one suspected terrorist during a cordon-and-search operation in northern Mosul. All of the suspects are in custody, and no injuries to friendly forces were reported.
Soldiers from 2nd Squadron, 14th Calvary Regiment seized a large cache of weapons during a search operation south of Mosul June 19. The weapons were confiscated for future destruction.
Elsewhere in Iraq, Iraqi and coalition forces captured 21 terror suspects and uncovered large caches of weapons during operations in central Iraq in recent days, military officials in Baghdad reported.
Task Force Baghdad and Iraqi security forces, acting on tips from two Iraqi citizens, today captured three men who were planning a terrorist attack and uncovered a large cache of weapons, military officials said.
A resident of central Baghdad told Task Force Baghdad soldiers about a group of terrorists were planning an attack on a coalition check point in Abu Ghraib and offered to go with the soldiers to point out exactly where the suspects lived. The soldiers investigated the tip and took three suspects into custody for questioning.
Later, acting on a tip from a second Baghdad resident, Iraqi army soldiers uncovered a cache of weapons containing three mortar rounds, 13 projectiles of various types, 20 pounds of solid rocket fuel, two rockets, an anti-tank mine, and an assortment of blasting caps, fuses and wire.
Iraqi security forces and Task Force Baghdad soldiers also captured five terror suspects, one targeted individual, and two weapons caches in one operation today. A second operation netted four terror suspects, bomb-making materials, triggering devices, one propane cylinder, and various false identification cards at one location. During the operation, Iraqi forces from the Interior Ministry and U.S. soldiers from 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment, conducted simultaneous raids on five targets in southern Baghdad.
"The terrorists are doing all they can to stop the rise of a free Iraq, but they are failing," Task Force Baghdad spokesman Army Lt. Col. Clifford Kent said. "Iraq security forces are taking on greater responsibilities. They're getting a lot of support from Iraqi citizens who want a secure country led by their own countrymen."
In earlier operations, Iraqi and coalition forces apprehended five suspected terrorists, including one specifically identified terror-cell financier, in central and southern Baghdad June 18. The captures were the result of searches in four separate locations, military officials said.
Task Force Baghdad soldiers also arrested an Iraqi national a rocket propelled grenade-sighting device was in his possession in western Baghdad.
In other operations around Baghdad, coalition forces uncovered a variety of devices used to make car and roadside bombs, including foot-pedal switches, mechanical timers, switches and relays in a house suspected of being a bomb-making facility. Coalition forces had been watching the house and surrounded and searched it after a man acting suspiciously entered the dwelling. The suspect was taken into custody.
Later, Task Force Baghdad soldiers found a roadside bomb with two 130 mm rounds and a remote-controlled detonator along a major highway. The bomb was safely detonated.
U.S. soldiers from Company A, 1st Battalion, 108th Armor, 48th Brigade Combat Team, conducting a security patrol in southern Baghdad early June 17 discovered a large cache of weapons that included about 100 82 mm mortar cases, 67 mortar fuses, a mortar base plate, and several mortar tubes. An explosive ordnance detachment was called to handle the explosives.
http://www.dod.mil/news/Jun2005/20050620_1776.html
US Willing To Talk To India About Supplying Missile Defence
A US official said Thursday his government was willing to talk to India about supplying missile defence systems, but urged New Delhi to spell out regulatory mechanisms for controlling exports of sensitive technologies.
"We are willing to talk to India about missile defence. Missile defence is very expensive. So, it is not something that India will enter into lightly," visiting US assistant secretary of state for arms control, Stephen Rademaker, told reporters.
Rademaker lauded India for a recent legislation by parliament on export control of sensitive technologies, but added that the "end game" would be a set of regulations for implementing it.
Earlier this year, Washington offered to step up a strategic dialogue with New Delhi including military and high-tech cooperation as well as expanded economic and energy cooperation.
It expressed willingness to discuss the issue of defense transformation with India, including other systems such as command and control and early warning.
India was a Cold War ally of the Soviet Union and maintains close ties with Iran, which the United States accuses of developing nuclear weapons and supporting Middle Eastern extremist groups.
Traditionally, it has bought most of its military equipment from Russia, France and Britain, but recently has shown interest in the military hardware of US defence firms.
The United States and India signed a landmark agreement last January to share advanced technology, including in peaceful nuclear applications.
http://www.spacewar.com/news/bmdo-05y.html
Oil Prices Rise to New High at Nearly $60 a Barrel, OPEC Considers Raising Output Ceiling
By BRAD FOSS
The Associated Press
NEW YORK Jun 20, 2005 — Oil prices marched to new heights near $60 a barrel even as the president of OPEC said Monday the group will consider raising its output ceiling by half a million barrels as early as this week.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries raised its output target by that amount just last week. The move appeared to have little impact on prices, which have risen by almost $12 a barrel in the past month because of concerns about limited refining capacity and rising demand for gasoline and diesel.
Light sweet crude for July delivery climbed 90 cents to settle at $59.37 a barrel, a record close on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where oil futures have been traded since 1983.
Gasoline prices in the U.S. average about $2.13 a gallon, an increase of more than 40 percent over the past two years, but government data released last week showed that demand is up almost 3 percent from a year ago over the past four weeks at nearly 9.5 million barrels a day a growth rate that surprised many analysts.
"The economy has accepted $50 oil. We accepted $2 gasoline too," said oil tycoon Boone Pickens, who runs a billion-dollar hedge fund that invests in energy commodities and equities.
"I think within a year from now, you're probably looking at $3 gasoline and you're probably looking at something over $60 for oil."
While soaring jet fuel costs have been a major problem for the airline industry, higher energy prices have not taken as much of a toll on the broader economy as many analysts had previously feared. In the first three months of the year, the U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate, according to the Commerce Department, slightly slower than the 4.5 percent pace a year earlier.
The prospect of another attempt by OPEC to cool prices did not impress brokers, who said the effort could actually backfire by highlighting the group's dwindling excess production capacity.
Still, "it looks like we might have difficulty holding these levels," said Mike Fitzpatrick, an oil broker at Fimat USA in New York. "You're seeing a great deal of reluctance among buyers to pay these higher prices."
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=865811&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
Official Offers Look at How Iraq's Insurgency Stages Deadly Suicide Attacks
June 20, 2005 — As the number of suicide bombings in Iraq grows higher and higher, a top U.S. military intelligence official tells ABC News they are learning more about the true nature of the bombers.
According to Brig. Gen. John Custer, director of intelligence for U.S. Central Command, suicide bombers are "recruited on the Internet. They hear about the terrible atrocities perpetrated against the Iraqis in Iraq. They want to go and martyr themselves."
There have been more than 450 suicide bombings since August. The majority of the bombers are ages 18 to 25 and, with rare exception, male.
Officials say they know of only one suicide bomber who was Iraqi, with the others coming from countries that include Sudan, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.
Custer says once interest is shown, an elaborate network run by Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi secretly sends the potential bomber into Iraq.
The would-be suicide bombers, says Custer, are then "hooked up with facilitators, whether in their country or neighboring countries, and flown to a capital — Damascus, [Syria,] is a place we've seen associated with this."
They then move across the border using false passports, Custer says, and are held in safe houses.
Once in Iraq, according to Custer, they are repeatedly exposed to videos showing civilian casualties of U.S. bombings or the photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. The indoctrination continues up until the moment the human bomber is given his suicide vest, bag, or vehicle.
Officials say suicide car bombings often involve three vehicles. The first car leads the suicide driver to the target, the second contains the bomb, and in case the driver loses his nerve, a third car follows behind to detonate the vehicles by other means.
"In many cases, we think it's detonated for them," Custer said, "so they don't even know when they are going to die."
If a bombing is successful and then videotaped, it is used to recruit more bombers and raise more money for the cause. Each one of the operations costs thousands of dollars.
Custer is trying to track those who finance the suicide bombers because by the time the attackers get into Iraq, it is often too late to stop them.
Updated 6/20/2005 10:58 PM
By Steven Komarow - USA TODAY
TIKRIT, Iraq — Before dawn, the pilots digest their intelligence briefing with coffee. The sun rises as they start preflight checks. Just after 7:30, they start rotors turning on their UH-60A Black Hawk, and ease it smoothly into the desert sky.
Browning, 56, of Paradise, Calif., and Weatherhead, 57, of Elk Grove, Calif., are grandfathers. They first flew combat missions in Vietnam, before most of the soldiers in the current Army were born. They and others their age are here with the National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division, which includes some of the oldest soldiers to serve in combat for the modern U.S. Army. Few soldiers or officers in the military, other than the service's top generals, are as old.
If there are parallels between Iraq and Vietnam, these graying soldiers and the other Vietnam veterans serving here offer a unique perspective. They say they are more optimistic this time: They see a clearer mission than in Vietnam, a more supportive public back home and an Iraqi population that seems to be growing friendlier toward Americans....MORE
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