Posted on 04/29/2006 3:12:19 PM PDT by northmoor
April 28, 2006
Just nine days before al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi released his latest video, a special operations raid killed five of his men, captured five others and apparently came within a couple of city blocks of nabbing Zarqawi himself.
Then, the day Zarqawi's video debuted, special ops forces killed 12 more of his troops in a second raid in the same town.
The raids in Yusufiyah, 20 miles southwest of Baghdad in the heart of the Sunni Triangle, were the latest battles in a small, vicious war being waged largely in the shadows of the wider counterinsurgency effort.
It is a war fought by a secretive organization called Task Force 145, made up of some of the most elite U.S. troops, including Delta Force and SEAL Team 6. They have one goal: hunting down Zarqawi, Iraq�s most wanted man, and destroying his al-Qaida in Iraq organization.
Zarqawi's escape in Yusufiyah was not the first time special ops troops have nearly had him. In early 2005, they came so close they could see the Jordanian's panicked face as he fled.
The first of the two Yusufiyah raids began at 2:15 a.m. April 16 when SEAL Team 6 operators and Army Rangers approached a terrorist safe house, a U.S. special operations source said.
A U.S. Central Command news release said coalition forces--the usual shorthand for Task Force 145 elements--were searching for a wanted al-Qaida associate.
When the U.S. troops arrived, the enemy opened fire with small arms. In the fight that followed, the special ops troops killed five terrorists, three of whom wore suicide belts, according to Central Command. Two of the suicide bombers were killed before either could detonate his vest, and the third detonated his body bomb, killing only himself and injuring no one else, the news release said.
A woman in the house also was killed. Three other women and a child were wounded and were medically evacuated to the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad.
U.S. forces detained five other occupants, one of whom was wounded. One of the five was later confirmed as the wanted al-Qaida terrorist for whom the troops were searching, according to Central Command.
The terrorist, whose name is currently being withheld, was involved in the planning and execution of improvised explosive device attacks and allegedly was associated with al-Qaida foreign fighter operations, the command said. The other four suspects are being assessed for knowledge of and involvement in terrorist activity, the news release said.
The Marine Corps Times provides details about the special units hunting Zarqawi:
The job of hunting Zarqawi and rolling up his al-Qaida in Iraq network falls to Task Force 145, which is made up of the most elite U.S. and British special operations forces, and whose headquarters is in Balad.
The U.S. forces are drawn from units under Joint Special Operations Command at Pope Air Force Base, N.C. These include the military's two direct action special mission units, the Army's 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, known as Delta Force, and the Navy's SEAL Team 6, sometimes known by its cover name, Naval Special Warfare Development Group; the Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment and 75th Ranger Regiment; and the Air Force�s 24th Special Tactics Squadron.
After Saddam Hussein's fall, the first order of business for the JSOC forces was capturing or killing the 55 individuals on the deck of cards that depicted the regime's senior officials. Delta's C Squadron was at the heart of the task force that captured Saddam in December 2003.
The emergence of Zarqawi and his al-Qaida in Iraq group as a major threat to Iraq's stability then gave JSOC a new priority. As the war in Iraq has ground on, and with Zarqawi still on the loose, the JSOC force in Iraq has grown steadily and undergone several name changes. TF 121 and TF 626 were two previous incarnations.
TF 145 is divided into four subordinate task forces in Iraq:
• Task Force West, organized around a SEAL Team 6 squadron with Rangers in support.
• Task Force Central, organized around a Delta squadron with Rangers in support.
• Task Force North, organized around a Ranger battalion combined with a small Delta element.
• Task Force Black, organized around a British Special Air Service saber squadron, with British paratroopers from the Special Forces Support Group in support.
And the MSM will continue to tell us there are no al Queda in Iraq. How can this be?
*Task Force Ping*
I agree with the head on the pike thing. He'd probably die of old age first if he's captured alive and put on trial.
"Task Force West, organized around a SEAL Team 6 squadron with Rangers in support."
I used to live in Virginia Beach, and SEAL Team 6 is/was based at the US Navy's Dam Neck training facility which is not far from the resort area. My next door neighbor's son-in-law was a commander in SEAL Team 6, a great guy, very professional, and he introduced me to several of his fellow teammates. If these guys are helping lead the charge in Iraq then I have all the confidence in the world that they will succeed.
ping
"why in the hell do I feel so uncomfortable discussing this in the open."
I feel the same way. They should keep this stuff under wraps until the mission is accomplished. And yes, agreed, that will be when we see his head on a pike, inside a pig's head for good measure.
Loose lips sink ships.
This article is treason and should be handled as such.
It is wrong because it gives order of battle details and operational assignments.
There's no good reason I can think of to release such info unless it's part of an information operation of some sort....mis or dis information. Let's hope.
NSDQ
In his latest video...he appears to have a bomb vest on...guess he doesn't intend to allow himself to be caught alive.
Ping
Ping
As xzins says, it gives details that they enemy should not have and could harm our people. It is owned by Gannett. I stand by what I said.
They are doing a little PR work. The more successful we are in destroying the terrorist organizations in Iraq the louder they swear they are winning the war. This last week we have had three tapes so you know we are really kicking some a$$.
About the only thing they can do right now is lie their tail ends off. Give it another few weeks and these terrorist leaders will have their gonads in a vise singing like a bird.
I cannot see how identifying the units involved to the enemy can be be anything but harmful.
I disagree . What is treasoneous about this?
It does not give locations of bases or names of soldiers in the units. Just details about the hunt. This is important for the American people to know so they can be behind the effort. The American people do not hear much about the effort other than the death tolls from IED and suicide bombers. It seems like the enemy is winning when that is all we hear. To know some of the real stories give a sense of realism and immediancy that we can support. The American people want to hear about the effort to win this war.
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