The Silver Lions have a long and honorable history (click on crest for more). They are continuing that honorable tradition in Iraq where they have been fighting al-Qaeda for months now in and around Baqubah.
Posted on 06/09/2006 9:08:50 PM PDT by bnelson44
Fort Carson's 1-68 Combined Arms Battalion had been fighting the forces of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for weeks in Diyala Provice north of Baghdad, and beating them soundly, before Wednesday night's fatal strike that took out Zarqawi himself, Lt. Col. Tom Fisher said Friday.
The fights had been going on since early in April, when Zarqawi announced in a video message that he intended to take over Diyala Province with his militia. He began a series of atrocities that included taking captives and decapitating them, and executing a bus load of students.
Fighting reached a peak April 27, Fisher said, when about 100 Zarqawi fighters attacked a police station and five checkpoints in an area of Baqouba but were crushed by combined U.S. and Iraq forces, who killed 47, captured 33 and tracked down another nine in the ensuing days.
Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi units were gathering information from citizens who had tired of Zarqawi's brutal attacks on innocent civilians, finally locating him earlier this week and calling in the airstrike that killed him.
"The soldiers were more than happy to get the guy who planned all that and take him out," he said. "And the locals are very happy."
Fisher's soldiers were called upon to provide perimeter security after the bombing at the target in Hibhib, just a few kilometers from Baqouba.
"It looks like any house that's been blown up," said Fisher. "There's a crater about 20 feet deep and 40 feet across. Bricks and debris everywhere."
Bless their hearts, we thank them mightily!!
The Silver Lions have a long and honorable history (click on crest for more). They are continuing that honorable tradition in Iraq where they have been fighting al-Qaeda for months now in and around Baqubah.
I guess they are going to need to update their history page now ;)
A little more on their work the last couple of days. By the way, the pictures of the site everyone is seeing were taken by the 3rd BCT.
Fort Carson unit secures site
Elements of Fort Carson's 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team provided the security barrier Thursday around the safe house where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed the night before.
But officials would not say whether the Fort Carson unit, which has operated for months in the Baqouba area, had developed critical intelligence that led to al-Zarqawi.
"The Zarqawi death was not our mission, though we did have responsibility of the outer cordon, and our troops are securing the site right now," Maj. Mike Humphreys, the unit's public affairs officer, said.
The brigade's 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment closed off the site as Army investigators and intelligence officers combed through the rubble of the safe house about five miles west of Baqouba.
Part of Fort Carson's 3,700-troop 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team has been operating in the Balad and Baqouba area since the unit arrived in Iraq last January.
Informants and detainees had led the Fort Carson troops to significant arms caches in the previous weeks and months.
By early March, it had uncovered more than 30 weapons caches yielding dozens of machine guns, hundreds of rocket and mortar rounds and materials for making improvised explosive devices, IEDs, used against U.S. troops, battalion commander Lt. Col. Tom Fisher told reporters in March.
"It truly was a very long, painstaking, deliberate exploitation of intelligence, information gathering, human sources, electronic signal intelligence that was done over a period of time - many many weeks - that led us last night to that target," said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for the Multinational Force - Iraq.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4761125,00.html
They are to be commended for doing such a fine job for America and Iraq. God bless them all.
God bless our brave troops.
Yep, I wouldn't mess with Johnny, and definitely wouldn't mess with Kit.
Let's see...47+33+9=89. That leaves about 11 mia or on the run.
msm headline "Small band of insurgents stymie American military forces "
F**K YES!!!
Hat's off to them. May they return home fast and safe!
God Bless Our Troops
Great! Now I've got the Team America theme song running through my head.
Cheers!
And I haven't even see the darn movie yet. ;o)
God Bless them all, our heros.
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