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http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=49588

Coalition Forces Detain 13 Suspects in Iraq Operations

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2008 – Coalition forces detained 13 suspected terrorists during operations yesterday and today targeting al-Qaida in Iraq networks in the Tigris River Valley and northwestern Iraq.

— Coalition forces captured two suspected terrorists yesterday during an operation west of Samarra, including an alleged close associate of a regional al-Qaida in Iraq leader. Intelligence gathered yesterday also led the ground force to another target this morning, where they detained two more suspected associates of the al-Qaida leader.

— Using information from recently detained suspects, coalition forces conducted a precision operation southwest of Taji today and apprehended a suspected al-Qaida agent believed to associate with several different terrorist cells.

— Coalition forces detained six suspects today during an operation northwest of Tal Afar targeting terrorists who facilitate the movement of foreigners who enter Iraq to plan and conduct criminal attacks.

— In Beiji today, coalition forces detained two suspected terrorists while targeting an individual believed to conspire directly with the leader of a car-bombing network and a weapons supplier.

“Coalition forces will use the information we gain from these captured suspects to target and capture additional al-Qaida in Iraq leaders and other terrorist operatives,” said Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman. “These efforts assist in allowing us to disrupt terrorists’ networks and degrade their ability to operate.”

In other operations today, a coalition Predator unmanned aerial vehicle observed five criminals attack an Iraqi army patrol with rocket-propelled grenades on the eastern side of the Hayyaniyah district at about 1:00 a.m. The UAV engaged the criminals and fired a Hellfire missile, killing four and wounding one. The criminals’ vehicle was suspected of containing more weapons and ammunition and engaged and destroyed by a second Hellfire missile.
“The message is clear to those that continue to obstruct the rule of law in Basra,” said Capt. Chris Ford, a spokesman for coalition forces in Basra. “Those attacking the Iraqi army and other government of Iraq security forces will be targeted as part of enduring coalition support to the people of Iraq.”

Also today, coalition forces targeted a senior al-Qaida in Iraq leader during a series of operations in Mosul, killing one terrorist and detaining five suspects.

As it approached one target location, the ground force immediately received small-arms fire from enemy positions. Coalition forces returned fire, suppressing the attack. As the ground force called for occupants of one building to surrender, a man came out and refused to put down his pistol despite repeated warnings from coalition forces and an interpreter. The armed man demonstrated hostile intent, forcing coalition forces to engage him, subsequently killing the man, U.S. officials said. A woman who was standing directly behind the terrorist also was killed when rounds passed through him. Five suspected terrorists were detained in the operations.

“Terrorists continue to put innocent civilians at risk through their total disregard for human life,” Rye said. “Coalition forces go to great lengths to avoid civilian deaths, and we lament the loss of any civilian lives during our operations.”

In operations April 14:

— With a tip from a local citizen, coalition and Iraqi army forces discovered a large cache of rockets in West Rashid, near Forward Operating Base Falcon. The cache consisted of 18 107 mm rockets, some still in their original packaging, and 20 rocket-launching stands. A citizen approached a soldier on guard at FOB Falcon with information on the whereabouts of the rockets. Soldiers from 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, and Iraqi soldiers from 5th Battalion, 25th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, conducted a joint patrol and found the cache. The rockets were in an area assessed to be a historic point of origin for attacks against coalition forces and Iraqi security forces.

— Iraqi security forces detained two criminal leaders wanted by the government of Iraq in separate operations April 14 in Basrah. An Iraqi emergency response unit captured the suspected leader and three other members of an improvised-explosive-device cell operating in the Basrah area. ntelligence reports indicate the cell has been involved in multiple attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces and in distributing IEDs and illegal weapons. A Hillah special weapons and tactics team detained the suspected leader of a criminal cell responsible for attacks against Iraqi and coalition forces. Seven suspected members of the cell also were detained.

— Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers seized multiple rockets and weapons in different operations in the Rashid district in southern Baghdad. Soldiers from 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, seized more than a dozen 107 mm rockets with launchers that appear to be of Iranian manufacture. The soldiers also seized weapons during a security patrol in western Rashid. They captured rocket-propelled grenades and almost 100 shotgun rounds. The soldiers also detained a man accused of attacking coalition forces during the ongoing security operations in West Rashid.

Iraqi security forces detained two key suspects April 13 and 14 in Seddah and turned them over to coalition forces in Mussayib. The key suspects are believed to be responsible for multiple attacks on coalition forces and Iraqi police during the first week of April to include an improvised-explosive-device attack on Iraqi police April 3, transporting weapons and explosives, and burning a Badr Corps building April 1.

The joint effort between the Seddah police and soldiers with 2nd Platoon, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, was directed specifically to capture the battalion-level key suspects. The battalion has captured 30 key suspects, with 11 of those being at the brigade-level, since taking over operational control of the area in December. “Overall, the people of Seddah have completely rejected the attempts of criminals to incite violence in their town,” said Army Capt. James R. Fournier, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry intelligence officer. “Almost immediately following an attack that occurred on the Iraqi police in Seddah, a number of citizens came forward and provided the information that allowed the IPs and coalition forces to detain these two criminals, who were responsible for the attack.”

More than 200 citizens held a demonstration in Seddah on April 14 to further enforce their rejection of criminals and their support for Iraqi security forces’ and coalition efforts, said Fournier, a native of Chicago.

Elsewhere, coalition forces patrolled a group of islands along the Tigris River during operations Apr. 12-14 and discovered that Sons of Iraq citizen security groups had already cleared an area once occupied by al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists. Local Iraqis in the area reported that the last time al-Qaida had a major presence in that region near Samarra was about two months ago. They told coalition forces that Sons of Iraq groups had forced many al-Qaida operations out of the area and remain vigilant in defending their neighborhoods against terrorist operations.

On Apr. 14, coalition forces detained one suspected terrorist during a joint coalition-Iraqi army patrol. During questioning, coalition forces determined the individual had multiple links to al-Qaida activities and weapons facilitators. One local Iraqi was wounded during the operation when he refused to comply with Iraqi army instructions while driving toward a joint patrol. Despite verbal signals, hand signals and warning shots, the man continued to approach the ground forces, and Iraqi army elements engaged the man, injuring him. He was treated for minor wounds by coalition medical personnel and was transported to a civilian hospital in the area.

“The vast majority of Iraqis have clearly rejected al-Qaida in Iraq’s extremist ways, and they want these terrorists out of their communities,” Rye, the Multinational Force Iraq spokesman. said. “Our operations will continue to help Iraqi citizens take back their communities and move toward a more peaceful future.”

(Compiled from Multinational Corps Iraq, Multinational Force Iraq and Multinational Division Baghdad news releases.)

See additional links:

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18510&Itemid=131
http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/newsstoryPhoto/2008-04/hrs_080416-alqaeda-slide01.jpg
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/images/stories/Press_briefings/2008/april/aqi_document_translated.pdf
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Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=49591

Intercepted al-Qaida Letter Reveals Tactics, Strategy

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2008 – Use silenced guns to kill coalition forces at Iraqi security checkpoints, smuggle weapons in gradual shipments to reduce the risk of detection, and poison Iraq’s water supply with nitric acid to spread disease and death.

Coalition forces found a chart showing senior al-Qaida leaders recently killed or captured and several pages of a letter found on the body of a terrorist. The items were released April 16, 2008, in Baghdad, Iraq, during a media briefing by U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman.
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Such tactics were fleshed out in a terrorist letter intended for Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the foreign-born leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. But the document never reached Masri. Instead, coalition forces lifted it from the body of a terrorist they killed last month during an operation 30 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The slain terrorist and author of the 11-page missive was Abu Safyan, from Diyala, Iraq, according to military officials who made available all but two pages deemed “not releasable” on the Multinational Force Iraq Web site.

Providing a glimpse into the proposed inner workings of al-Qaida in Iraq, the author discusses the need to split jihadists into three groups: snipers, assassination experts and martyrs. Each well-trained group should have an emir, or unit commander, at the lead. Through a series of coordinated surprise attacks, groups should work in unison to “bring down the city or the area,” he wrote.

In addition to outlining extremist combat methods, Safyan advocated waging economic and psychological warfare, and his roadmap for success hinged on “continuous conflict” between Iraq’s Shiite government, Sunni members of “Awakening Movements” and Kurdish nationalists.

“This will lessen the pressure against us and the Mujahidin brothers in all of Iraq when the enemies fight among themselves and weaken,” according to the handwritten Arabic letter, penned in blue ink on lined paper, that coalition forces captured in a remote farmhouse March 5 along with a suicide vest and computer equipment.

Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, today said the intercepted pages offer insight into the mind of a terrorist and provide further evidence about al-Qaida’s overarching strategy and tactics of violence.

“This document is just one man’s articulation, one terrorist’s views about instigating conflict and turning Iraqis against each other. But it is also quite consistent with the patterns of violence we see from AQI,” Bergner told reporters during a news conference in Baghdad, referring to al-Qaida in Iraq by the acronym AQI.

To strike at Iraq’s economy, the document proposes attacking the fields, wells and pipelines that make up the national oil infrastructure. The author recommends targeting oil tankers and ships, specifically those in Basra, Kirkuk and Baghdad.

“Attack all the targets that strengthen the enemy economically and militarily,” Safyan wrote. “Even the American Army will weaken since it depends on the Iraqi oil and gas wealth. The enemy will gradually drown step by step.”

The letter advises that a chemical offensive can inflict both physical and mental harm. Contaminating Iraqis’ water can produce “killing and dangerous illness,” and also convince the enemy “that we have a dangerous chemical weapon,” Safyan wrote. “But in fact,” he continues, “it’s a psychological war that places fear in the enemy.”

Page 8 of the document focuses on instigating fights between coalition forces and Iraqi groups, especially Sunnis who have rejected foreign extremism and terrorism in droves in what has been referred to as “Awakening Groups.” Safyan suggested infiltrating the Sunni cadres before planting and detonating mines “in their villages and streets.”

Bergner said the author’s call for violence against the Awakening movement typifies the kind of extremism many Iraqis have turned against. The confiscated document also reveals the threat such groups present to terrorists, he added.

“These writings are further examples of the corrupt ideology that Iraqis are broadly rejecting,” he said. “We have seen about 100,000 men choose a different path and join local volunteer groups like the Sons of Iraq instead.”

Later in the briefing, Bergner told reporters that coalition forces had captured or killed 53 al-Qaida in Iraq leaders since his most recent news conference early this month.

The 10 most significant targets, according to Bergner, were:

— Abd-al-Rahman Ibrahim Jasim Thair, the military emir responsible for al-Qaida’s operations in Mosul. Thair is the former emir in Beiji, who moved to Mosul because of the city’s importance to al-Qaida.

— Muhammad Fathi Hammad Husayn, an al-Qaida cell leader in Sharqat. Like Thair, he also moved from Beiji, where he was formerly the emir in charge of assassinations.

— Jasim Najm Khalaf Muhammad, a leader in al-Qaida’s network in Khark who was attempting to reconstitute terrorist networks around Baghdad when coalition forces captured him in Tarmiyah.

— Ali Mustashar Ali, a car bomb network operative in Baghdad. He and his associates moved explosives, vehicles and suicide bombers throughout the Iraqi capital.

— Hamid Awayd Muhammad, a car- and truck-bomb attack operative in Baghdad. Once the al-Qaida emir responsible for Anbar province, he handled the logistics for vehicle-bomb attacks north of Baghdad at the time of his capture.

— Ahmad Husayn Ghanim Ali, the security emir for eastern Mosul.

— Abu Mansur, al-Qaida’s deputy emir for Mosul, who acted as a judge in the terror network’s illegal courts. The role of Mansur, who died March 8, was to “cloak their corrupt ideology with religious sanction.”

— Tumah Khalaf Mutar Hassan, the leader of al-Qaida’s cell in Samarra, who worked closely with the area’s emir. Coalition forces captured him in Samarra in early March.

— Muqdad Ibrahim Abbas Husayn, al-Qaida’s military emir for Jalam, located east of Baghdad. He coordinated terror operations with counterparts from Tikrit, Samarra and Mosul, and arranged al-Qaida leadership meetings in the Tigris River valley. Husayn also oversaw kidnappings for ransom that terrorists relied on for operational funding.

— Mahmud Abd-al-Hamid Isa Aaywi, al-Qaida’s military emir for southern Karkh. His operations focused on trying to use car and truck bombs in Rashid, Karrada and Mansour.

“These terrorists are just one component of the mosaic of security threats that seek to destabilize Iraq and incite a cycle of violence the Iraqi people broadly reject,” Bergner said. He noted that recent violence against Iraqi citizens “highlights the need to keep going forward and the need to keep pursuing these terrorists.”

Related Sites:
Abu Safyan’s letter
Briefing Transcript
A confiscated letter written by an al-Qaida in Iraq operative to the organization’s top commander outlines terrorist tactics and broad strategy for defeating coalition forces and their Iraqi allies. From a Multinational Force Iraq presentation released April 16, 2008.
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