Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16864&Itemid=21
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20080206-11
February 6, 2008
Hostages found after 15 days in underground prison
Multi-National Division – North PAO
SAMARRA, Iraq – Coalition Force Soldiers, working with intelligence from Iraqi Police in Northern Iraq, liberated two men locked inside a large storage container being used as a subterranean prison in the Al Jazeera desert near Samarra Feb. 4.
Local Iraqi Police were given the information from Sons of Iraq (formerly known as Concerned Local Citizens). The Soldiers of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, quickly responded from Patrol Base Olsen in Samarra.
Coalition Forces arrived at the prison site and found two men inside the buried container. The hostages, both from Yethrib Village near Balad, were taken from a gas station along with a fuel truck by men in black masks.
“The two individuals told us they were taken because their station didn’t pay Al Qaeda extremist,” said 1st Lt. Todd Baldwin, Company C, 2-327th,
The two men were malnourished and dehydrated, but showed no signs of torture. They were able to move freely inside the container.
After receiving medical attention at Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora near Samarra, the men were questioned. They said, while in captivity, there were up to nine other people held prisoner. The two men didn’t know what happened to the others, but mentioned five of them were from a Sons of Iraq group in Bayji.
The informant, who led Coalition Forces to the underground prison, also led Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces to another location where an empty storage container was buried. It is believed to be an old weapons cache.
“Iraqi Police and Sons of Iraq were the driving forces in the rescue of the two men,” said Baldwin. “They provided the human intelligence for us to conduct the rescue operation.”
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Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16865&Itemid=21
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20080206-12
February 6, 2008
3 suspected extremists arrested in Rashid
Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO
BAGHDAD – Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers arrested three suspected Sunni extremists Feb. 3 during operations across the Rashid District of the Iraqi capital.
Policemen from 1st Brigade, 7th Iraqi National Police Division, arrested a man believed to be an al-Qaeda operative after he tried to pass through a traffic control checkpoint in Massafee.
The man, suspected of murder, placing improvised explosive devices and weapons trafficking, was taken to an Iraqi facility for further questioning.
Earlier in the day, Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, MND-B, captured two suspected AQI cell members in two separate raids in Doura.
During the first raid, Company B Soldiers knocked on the door of home believed to be an AQI sniper, and arrested a man matching the extremist’s name and description. The man is accused of setting up false checkpoints to kidnap Shia and Christian Iraqis in the Arab Jabour region of the city.
Later, Company C Soldiers arrested a man accused of murder, forcibly displacing families and placing IEDs in the Doura area.
Both alleged extremists were taken to a Coalition Forces Detention Facility for further questioning.
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