Coalition Troops are Taking Fight to the Enemy
AFPS
The hands-on
work of patrols, raids and picking up targeted individuals continues
in Iraq.
Coalition
forces are taking the fight to the enemy and responding to enemy
challenges, according to news releases on recent coalition activity.
Coalition troops are also benefiting from increased intelligence
from local people.
During the
last 24 hours, the coalition reported that soldiers from the 82nd
Airborne Division conducted 261 patrols – including 18 joint
patrols – cleared two small caches and carried out three
offensive operations in the Anbar province area of security. Iraqi
Civil Defense Corps forces also conducted 17 independent patrols.
Early Feb.
7, soldiers conducted a cordon and search in Khalidiyah to kill
or capture members of the Kharbit clan, suspected of facilitating
anti-coalition force movement and action. The operation resulted
in the capture of eight enemy personnel, including four primary
targets.
Also that
morning, soldiers conducted a cordon and search in Husaybah to
clear a suspected cache. They confiscated nine grenades, two mine
fuses and one AK-47, and captured three people.
Members of
3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, under Task Force Olympia,
recovered weapons and explosive devices in northern Iraq, according
to a coalition news release.
Reported also
were 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, soldiers conducting
a cordon-and-knock operation in Mosul and detaining a suspect
wanted for anti-coalition activities.
On Feb. 6,
a mounted patrol killed an attacker who fired on it with a rocket-propelled
grenade along a highway northwest of Khalidiyah.
In Samarra
that day, a patrol of the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor, a part of
the 4th Infantry Division, returned fire after it came under attack.
The patrol was in the area to check out a report of an improvised
explosive device. Three attackers in a truck fired rocket-propelled
grenades at the soldiers, and then sped off.
No coalition
troops were injured in the incident. One wounded Iraqi civilian
was treated at a nearby hospital.
The patrol
radioed a description of the vehicle, and another 66th Armor unit
from the battalion spotted it. "The driver attempted to escape
at a high rate of speed as soldiers fired warning shots and two
other men jumped from the vehicle and fled on foot," according
to a 4th Infantry Division release.
"When
the driver refused to stop soldiers used a Bradley fighting vehicle’s
25 mm cannon to disable it. The driver was wounded as a result.
The wounded attacker was brought to Samarra hospital for treatment.
Soldiers continued to search the area for the two men. They were
captured a short distance away."
A local Iraqi
told the troops he saw the men drop off what appeared to be weapons,
and he led the soldiers to the cache. Soldiers confiscated one
RPK machine gun, one AK-47 assault rifle, four RPG launchers and
three RPGs.
Also in the
4th Infantry’s area, Ali Knowar Salah, a former regime major general
wanted for questioning by coalition forces, turned himself in
to C Battery, 1st Battalion, 17th Field Artillery, Feb. 6. Coalition
soldiers had attempted to capture Salah in a previous raid.
In the area
of operations of 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, a source
led U.S. forces to a cache along the Euphrates River east of Habbaniyah.
At the site, they discovered one 60 mm mortar, eight 60 mm mortar
rounds, five RPG rounds, and two hand grenades.
Division soldiers
also received mortar fire in eastern Ramadi. An Air Force plane
located the origin of the attack and directed a nearby patrol
to the site. U.S ground forces captured three enemy personnel,
one 82 mm mortar system, and 17 82 mm mortar rounds.
Northwest
of Khalidiyah, soldiers conducted a search of a target house to
find weapons or ammunition. There, they captured Yaseen Abed Mukhalif,
a former Iraqi Intelligence Service officer suspected of supporting
anti-coalition actions in the area. Soldiers also captured Mukhalif’s
brother, and both are in a detention facility.
On Feb. 6,
paratroopers of the 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, conducted
a cordon and search northeast of Fallujah. The soldiers were searching
for Khalil Daham Sereh, suspected of receiving, transporting and
emplacing large quantities of improvised explosive device-making
materials.
The operation
resulted in the capture of three enemy personnel – although none
was the primary target. The soldiers also confiscated four AK-47s,
two bolt-action rifles, one RPG-7 manual, one electrical timer
and handwritten anti-coalition messages.
Paratroopers
also conducted a cordon and search south of Nassir Wa Al Salaam
to kill or capture Tahlib Skair Aswad, a mortar cell leader believed
to be responsible for attacks against the Abu Ghurayb prison.
They captured him and two others along with two AK-47s and seven
AK-47 magazines.
In the Iraq’s
far west sector, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment soldiers conducted
a cordon and search in Husaybah to kill or capture four named
individuals believed to finance foreign fighters. They captured
five enemy personnel, including one of the four primary targets.
They also confiscated a computer and documents.
In the northern
part of the country, members of the Coalition for Iraqi Unity,
a concerned group of citizens, came to the 1st Squadron, 14th
Cavalry Regiment, and turned in one rocket-propelled grenade launcher,
131 RPG warheads, 21 boosters, 718 12.7 mm rounds, 51 hand grenades,
one 60 mm mortar round, one 52 mm mortar round, two cases of 14.5
mm ammunition, a radio, 213 82 mm mortar rounds, one RPG night
vision device, 500 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, 550 rounds of
14.5 mm ammunition and one 100 mm high-explosive round.