Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32724
Two U.S. Soldiers, One Terrorist Killed in Separate Incidents
By Melinda L. Larson
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 7, 2007 – One terrorist was killed and three others detained during an assault by coalition forces in southwest Baghdad today.
The detainees said the dead man was a local car bomb cell leader in charge of approximately 40-50 men, military officials reported. While searching the targeted building coalition forces found several AK-47s.
“Coalition forces continue methodical and deliberate efforts to eliminate vehicle-borne improvised explosive device cells in Iraq,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman.
Meanwhile, south of Ramadi, coalition forces captured four suspected terrorists they believe have ties to an al Qaeda in Iraq foreign fighter facilitation network.
Elsewhere in Iraq, a coalition air strike today targeted armed militia men, killing one in Ad Diwaniyah, military officials said.
Operation Black Eagle, coordinated by 8th Iraqi Army and Multinational Division Baghdad and Multinational Division Center South coalition forces, was launched yesterday to defend against illegally armed militia men who allegedly used shoulder-fired rocket propelled grenades.
Iraqi Army personnel, through a tip line, were informed by local residents of the militia men who were operating in the area.
Operation Black Eagle netted 39 enemy fighters who are being detained for questioning.
Iraqi and coalition forces also discovered several weapons and ammunition caches including 27 90mm rockets, six claymore mines, five crates of C-4 explosives, 14 hand grenades, 13 fully-loaded AK-47 ammunition magazines, 900 PKC ammunition gun rounds, two PKC machine gun barrels, one PKC machine gun stock, one mortar system sight, and five ballistic vests.
During the operation, one coalition vehicle was struck by an IED. Ammunition and fuel ignited and destroyed the vehicle. Three coalition soldiers were wounded, receiving cuts and bruises, military officials reported.
Also today, Iraqi police with support from paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, captured two suspects in a mosque in Musayyib.
The search of the mosque was conducted based on intelligence repots of terrorist activities there. When operating in and around holy sites, Iraqi security and coalition forces take precautions to minimize damage to property and disruption of legitimate activities, military officials reported.
On Friday, two Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers were killed in Baghdad during two separate incidents.
The first incident occurred in an eastern section of the Iraqi capital. The soldiers were conducting a combat security patrol when an explosively-formed projectile detonated. In addition to killing one, four soldiers were wounded by the blast, military officials reported.
Meanwhile, on the westside of Baghdad, one Multinational Division Baghdad soldier was killed and three others were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated while they conducted a security patrol. Military officials said that over the past two weeks, elements of the unit found a car bomb and disarmed it.
Elsewhere, in western Ramadi yesterday, 12 Iraqi civilians were killed and 43 injured after a truck bomb, suspected of containing chlorine, exploded near a police checkpoint, military officials reported.
When the truck approached an Iraqi Police checkpoint in the Ta’meem district at a high rate of speed, police attempted to signal the driver to stop. When the driver did not stop, the officers engaged him with small arms fire. It was unclear whether the police gunfire caused the vehicle to explode or if the driver detonated it, officials reported.
Coalition forces arrived on the scene to assist with the medical evacuation and set up security around the blast site. The injured were evacuated to a local hospital and a coalition medical facility.
The names of the soldiers killed in Baghdad are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
(Compiled from Multinational Force and Multinational Division Iraq news releases.)
Note: The following text (minus the photos) is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=32725
Paratroopers Take Down Adhamiyah Terrorists
By U.S. Army Sgt. Mike Pryor
Special to American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 7, 2007 – On the surface, the market seems perfectly ordinary. Men outside the shops gather to play dominoes, smoke, and drink tea. On hot afternoons, an ice cream stand does a brisk business. But in the dark back rooms of some of the shops, murderous plans are hatched.
It’s called the Fish Market, a seemingly benign marketplace in the Graya’at area of Baghdad’s Adhamiyah district. But according to 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers responsible for security in the area, it’s also the nexus for Adhamiyah’s criminal-terrorist underground.
Since paratroopers from 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment began conducting security operations in Adhamiyah two months ago, residents have consistently pointed them back to the Fish Market as the source of much of the region’s criminal activity. Over time, the paratroopers narrowed in on a handful of individuals based at the market who they believed were responsible for some of the worst crimes. They even gave them a nickname: “The Fish Market Five.”
Now it’s the “Fish Market Three.”
In simultaneous, early-morning raids Mar. 31, paratroopers from Battery B, 2-319th AFAR captured two members of the Fish Market Five and detained three other suspects for questioning.
One of the detainees was a suspected lieutenant in a murder, torture and kidnapping cell. The other was allegedly one of the leaders of a group responsible for sniper and bomb attacks on U.S. forces. Three other suspects were also taken into custody during the raids.
The raids took place within minutes of each other shortly after one in the morning.1st Lt. Josh Rowan, of College Station, Texas, whose platoon led the assault on one of the homes, said the point of conducting the raids simultaneously was to catch the targets off guard.
“Our intent was to go out and capture these guys at the same time, so that one guy didn’t have a chance to warn the other guy,” Rowan said.
The kidnapper was taken into custody first, when paratroopers shotgun-blasted his door open and hauled him out of bed in his underwear. Two other unidentified males staying in the house were also detained. In addition to kidnapping and murder, Rowan said the target of the raid had a hand in numerous other criminal activities, including pimping and gun-running.
“He’s like a renaissance man of terrorism,” said Rowan.
A few blocks down the street from where Rowan’s platoon was conducting their raid, 2nd Lt. Larry Pitts and his platoon were about to hit the bomb-maker’s house. Emerging from the cover of a palm grove thicket, they crept through the streets until they found the house they were looking for.
Pitts quietly unlatched the front gate and they moved inside the courtyard. When they were set, the breach man blew the front door open with a shotgun blast and the assault squad rushed in. The suspect went quietly, and it was all over in minutes.
As he was supervising the search of the kidnapper’s house, Rowan got the call over his radio that the other platoon had got their man.
“Nice. Two for two,” he said.
The raids were the return on months of investigative work. It took countless hours spent meetings with residents, cultivating sources, and painstakingly piecing together information before it finally paid off, said Sgt. Billy Davison, a team leader with Battery B from Texarkana, Texas. But Davison said the final results made it all worthwhile.
“It was all worth it in the end,” he said.
(U.S. Army Sgt. Mike Pryor is assigned to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs)