10 Terrorists Killed; Suicide Vests, Weapons Destroyed

American Forces Press Service ^

[SandRat]

BAGHDAD, May 2, 2006 – Coalition forces killed 10 terrorists, three of them wearing suicide vests, and wounded one at approximately 1:30 a.m. today at a safe house located approximately 40 kilometers southwest of Balad, Iraq, while searching for an al Qaeda terrorist leader.

Upon the troops' arrival, a terrorist sleeping while on guard outside the safe house woke up and attempted to engage the assault troops with a pistol. The terrorist was shot before he could fire his weapon. As the wounded terrorist fell backward, he reached toward his chest and detonated a suicide vest. None of the assault troops were harmed in the explosion.

Meanwhile, the troops killed nine other terrorists, seven who exited the safe house during the fight and two who were killed inside. Two of the nine terrorists were wearing suicide vests, but the troops killed these bombers before either could detonate his vest.

The terrorists had grenades, rifles, a pistol, ammunition, explosives, a machine gun and suicide vests in their possession. The troops found $1,000 in U.S. currency on one terrorist. And after the suicide bomber detonated his vest, they noticed hundreds of scattered pieces of charred U.S. bills.

The safe house and all lethal material, including two remaining suicide vests, grenades, weapons, explosives, and blasting caps were destroyed. The injured terrorist was medically evacuated to Balad for further medical care. No civilians were located in or nearby this safe house.

(From a Multinational Force Iraq news release.)

[SandRat]

HEHEHEHEHEHE -- TERRORIST ATTEMPT AT SLAP-SHTICK HUMOR BRINGS GREAT WAR NEWS

[jocko12]

Only 10,it must have been a bad day.

[appleharvey]

May God bless all of our soldiers in harm's way, and may God damn all of the drive by media.

[M1Tanker]

Guess the terrorists forgot General Order #1..... And I'm not talking no alcohol.

And they forgot a primary Rule of Combat: Always have the bigger gun.

I doubt it this will make headlines anytime soon.....

[msnimje]

"Safe House" must lose something in translation.

[Recovering Hermit]

Only 10, it must have been a bad day.

10 less terrorists is probably a good day.

Unfortunately, these cockroaches have to be exterminated in their little nests.

They don't congregate in one position and wave enemy flags.

[null and void]

Gung-ho US Troops Urged To Be More British

Gen Chiarelli is deeply saddened...

[frogjerk]

LIBERAL MEDIA: "That's 10 good stories about 'Freedom Fighters' that we will not be covering in the near future...BUSH'S FAULT!"

[G Larry]

Actually, we nailed another 100 "insurgents" with no U.S. casualties.

[bnelson44]

yep, with a not a little help from our friends.

[Greenpees]

My brother will be in Balad in short order. I don't envy his role of having to medically care for a terrorist.

[csvset]

a terrorist sleeping while on guard

Good work by our guys, geting the drop on this den of dirtbags.

[bnelson44]

Lots of people wearing suicide vests in the raid. Very interesting. And I think unusual.

[M1Tanker]

Actually it is not unusual. These terrorists were probably within 12 hours of conducting an attack. Those terrorists without the vests on were the guides, back-up triggers, or handlers. The ones wearing the vests were, most likely, on their way to conduct a bombing of civilian or Iraqi Police/Defense force units (though attacking a US unit would also be high on their list, but much harder to hit).

The bottom line is this mission probably saved the lives of dozens of Iraqi civilians today. Maybe even more if the target was a market, school, or a hospital. Yet one more in a long list of stories where US/Coalition/Iraqi forces saved the lives of civilians by killing terrorists.

A safe house is also a difficult to find target with the potential for a lot of good intell. Just finding it meant that some very good Military Intell and CA folks did a great job of connecting the dots. Add to this the phenomenal work of units lead by young 2LTs and experienced NCOs and manned with this nation's finest. When it all comes together, this is the result.

[Loud Mime]

Safe house = suicide and final execution

Makes sense to me......

[bnelson44]

Thank you

[Marine_Uncle]

"Lots of people wearing suicide vests in the raid. Very interesting. And I think unusual. "
One could take the view that these guys must have all been hard core al Qaeda, and not some affiliate Baathist/Sunni support group mix. I realize I have harped a lot over the two years about much of the insurgency being coordinated out of the Sunni Triangle which of course included the city/town/villages within the Triangle of Death area S/SW/SE of the capital, but I am still convinced, as the whole 200 mile or so rivertine area (Euphrates N or cap to Syria) has been cleaned up, those al Qaeda who could, worked their way down into the ST/TOD area, as a last stronghold.
So many of the Al Anbar population centers are now denied them, and the bomb shops, weapon caches are mostly or almost all no longer. With the canal grid work and lay of the land and the way towns are interconnected in say the Triangle of Death area, it provides al Qaeda and Saddamist an almost idea way of still maintaining weapon caches and bomb building shops for instance. And has been harped many times, the TOD area has long be known to be populated by many of the Saddamist regime.
So naturually at this point TF145 and our army and Marines are concentrating a lot of units in this area. The big cleanup is on. Remaining al Qaeda are going to find it really hard to try to relocate down south where they will not last once exposed, nor north of the capital in many areas. Their days as well as the Saddamist surely looked numbered at this point.
Meanwhile the Iraqi forces are wading into them with similiar vigor.

[Flyer]

a terrorist sleeping while on guard

Never, never, EVER bring a pillow to a gun fight.