Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=3175
Suspected al Qaeda Leader, Others Captured; Weapons Cache Found
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2007 – Coalition forces detained 15 suspected terrorists, including a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq emir, in raids throughout Iraq today; Iraqi forces found a large weapons cache Feb. 24; and Iraqi and coalition forces announced the casualty toll from yesterday’s car-bomb attack in Habbaniyah, military officials reported.
During an operation in Baghdad, coalition forces captured a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq emir and one of his associates.
Three suspected foreign terrorist facilitators were captured in operations northeast of Samarra, and eight more were captured in a foreign fighter safe house west of Mahmudiyah.
In downtown Ramadi, coalition forces captured two suspects in a foreign fighter safe house. Intelligence reports indicated members of the cell were planning suicide operations against coalition or Iraqi forces.
"Coalition forces are making progress dismantling the foreign fighter and al Qaeda terrorist networks inside Iraq," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman. "These operations send a message to terrorists that they will be caught and prosecuted for their crimes under the Iraqi justice system."
Separately, Iraqi police and coalition military officials placed the number of those killed in yesterday's suicide truck bomb attack in Habbaniyah at about 31 Iraqis killed and 75 wounded. The attack occurred at about 4 p.m. in a busy intersection as citizens were exiting a mosque after evening prayer. The blast affected a nearby school and an Iraqi police station.
The target of this latest al Qaeda in Iraq-led attack is not known, officials said. Iraqi police established triage for the victims of the attack, and coalition medical personnel assisted in the treatment and evacuation of the wounded civilians.
In Baqubah, information provided by a concerned citizen led Iraqi police officers from Judidah and coalition forces from the 1-12 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, to a large improvised explosive device cache Feb. 24.
The cache consisted of two explosively formed projectiles, a completed improvised mine, more than two dozen mortar rounds and 15 rockets, six rocket launchers, five anti-aircraft rounds, more than two dozen RPG warheads, more than 400 plastic and steel containers in various stages of fabrication for IED construction, and large quantities of IED-making material.
"The vigilance of the Iraqi police and the willingness of the people of Diyala to end the cycle of violence led to this discovery," said Col. David W. Sutherland, 3-1 Cav. commander and senior U.S. Army officer in the Diyala province.
A coalition forces explosive ordnance disposal unit safely disposed of some of the munitions with the majority of the cache being transferred to Forward Operating Base Warhorse.
(Compiled from Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=3180
Iraqi Tips Lead to Bomb Factory Discovery
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2007 – Tips that led to the discovery of a bomb-making factory in western Iraq demonstrate that the Iraqi people are fed up with terrorists operating in their midst and stepping forward to help remove them, military officials in Baghdad told reporters today.
Officials from 3rd Brigade, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, briefed reporters about a search for weapons caches that ultimately led to the bomb factory Feb. 20 in Gharmah, about 10 miles east of Fallujah.
Army Capt. Matt Gregory, commander of Company A, described the materials uncovered during the raid: blasting caps, ballistic glass used in up-armored Humvees, and five vehicles, one full of propane tanks and initiation devices.
But only when the team continued its mission and found a chemical workshop and metal workshop did they realize the significance of their find, Gregory said. They found homemade explosives and “quite a sizable selection of chemicals,” including canisters of chlorine, several 55-gallon barrels of nitric acid and several bags of fertilizer, as well as a Russian bomb.
“At that point, we realized that this objective was a lot bigger than what we had planned for and what we had ever hoped to find,” he said.
The team returned after daylight to continue the search, he said, finding mortar and artillery rounds, rockets and enemy documents.
Army Lt. Col. Valery Keaveny, the brigade’s commander, called the cooperation that led to the find proof that the Iraqi people don’t like living under the intimidation campaign al Qaeda has imposed on them.
When the brigade first arrived at Camp Fallujah in the fall, “we quickly found the local civilians were terrorized and were threatened, and they did not like life under al Qaeda. They wanted a way out,” Keaveny said. “And we found very quickly that, once we showed our compassion and our professionalism, they would be willing to work with us.”
Over time, relationships built between the troops and the local Iraqis led to tips and information about al Qaeda that led to actionable intelligence. The effort began to have a domino effect as one raid led to more intelligence that led to even more raids -- most recently, the bomb-making factory.
“We continue to conduct more raids, recovery more documentation, more IED-making materials, more sniper capabilities,” Keaveny said.
Iraqis are demonstrating that they want to be a part of this effort and help clear their communities of terrorists, he said. “We are seeing the locals stand up more and more, working with us, working with the Iraqi security forces, police and army, for their road ahead,” he said. “The Iraqi people are standing up for their own freedom (and) … so that their kids can grow up without … oppression from al Qaeda.”
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has stepped up its campaign to eliminate the indigenous Sunni opposition in Anbar province. According to an American intelligence official and a military officer, al-Qaeda in Iraq is attempting to destroy all effective Sunni opposition in the province. Over the past week, al-Qaeda has conducted two major suicide attacks in Habbaniyah and Ramadi against two influence members of the Sunni opposition to al-Qaeda in Iraq: Shiekh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, and the imam of a Habbaniyah mosque who spoke out against al-Qaeda.
On February 19, al-Qaeda in Iraq targeted the home of Shiekh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the head of the Anbar Salvation Council, which is a grouping of Anbar tribes that oppose al-Qaeda's implementation of sharia law and murder of both Shia and Sunni alike. Al-Qaeda targeted Sattar's home with two suicide strikes, the first of which breached the wall of the compound, and the second of which was designed to hit the building. Eleven were killed, including women, children and policemen.