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Iraqi and US troops continue to press the offensive against the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army during a series of raids throughout Iraq. Since July 18, US and Iraqi forces have killed six Mahdi Army fighters and captured 18 during operations in central Iraq. Scores more have been captured, including senior leaders, weapons smugglers, financiers, trainers, and cell leaders. The raids have been driven by intelligence, much of it gleaned from captive Mahdi Army fighters, according to information contained in Multinational Forces Iraq press releases. Captive Mahdi Army leaders and cell members are providing US and Iraqi forces information on leaders and...

14 July 2008The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air strike on Iran and the retaliations that would follow), a fair-minded person could say with reasonable certainty that the war has ended. A new and better nation is growing legs. What's left is messy politics that likely will be punctuated by low-level violence and the occasional spectacular attack. Yet, the will of the...

BAGHDAD — Iraq experienced the lowest number of acts of violence in more than four years last week, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq said July 9. Security progress in Iraq is unmistakable, Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said. Civilian deaths around the country were at their lowest point in three years, the general told reporters, adding that the reduction in violence is allowing the Iraqi government and the coalition to put in place projects that improve the quality of life in the country and create jobs for Iraqis. The general said the security improvements are due in large part...

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2008 – Iraq experienced the lowest number of acts of violence in more than four years last week, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq said in Baghdad today. Video Security progress in Iraq is unmistakable, Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said. Civilian deaths around the country were at their lowest point in three years, the general told reporters, adding that the reduction in violence is allowing the Iraqi government and the coalition to put in place projects that improve the quality of life in the country and create jobs for Iraqis. The general said the security...

Click to view images from Taji. Photos by Bill Murray. TAJI, IRAQ: There are few pictures of a US Army Tactical Operations Centers, and once inside you realize why. Everything within the walls of a TOC in Iraq -- and there are dozens at the company, battalion and brigade levels -- is more or less classified. Screen after screen of live Unmanned Aerial Vehicle camera footage, high-definition video from floating balloons tethered high above each forward-operating base, high-powered FM radios connected with ground troops, three tiers of desks with sergeants and captains using internal message and email systems to...

Clashes broke out in the Sadr City district in northeastern Baghdad after Iraqi forces detained a senior Sadrist leader, an Iraqi news outlet reported. Iraqi soldiers and police cordoned several neighborhoods in the Mahdi Army stronghold to contain the fighting that occurred after security forces detained Abbas Abdul Aal, who is a "senior Sadrist leader," Voices of Iraq reported. Aal's nephew was also detailed. "Security forces closed all of the city's outlets and prevented the movement of traffic and pedestrians," an eyewitness told the Iraqi newspaper. The move in Sadr comes one day after Iraqi soldiers closed the Sadrist office...

BALAD, Iraq – Iraqi Special Operations Forces and Iraqi Army soldiers detained eight suspected criminals and killed a suicide bomber in the Ninewah province, July 4.In one operation, ISOF conducted a mission in the outskirts of Mosul to detain the leader and other cell members of the Islamic State of Iraq, a front organization for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The group is known for operating support networks for weapons supply lines through Mosul to the north along the Tigris River.Based on warrants, ISOF detained seven suspected criminals. The seven suspects make up a cell that reportedly uses intimidation to silence local...

Muqtada al Sadr. Click to view. Over the space of several days in early June, Muqtada al Sadr has issued two consequential orders that will affect the future of his movement and that of Iraq. Sadr has ordered the reorganization of his infamous Mahdi Army and has forbidden the Sadrist movement from participating in the upcoming provincial elections. Sadr’s first declaration addressed the organization and operations of the Mahdi Army, the military arm of the Sadrist movement. Sadr ordered his militiamen to halt the fighting and announced that a small, specialized unit will have the exclusive right to fight...

A tip led soldiers from the 39th Iraqi Army Brigade to a large cache of munitions and weapons that included 217 rocket-propelled grenades, 354 blocks of C-4, and more than 40 explosively formed projectiles in the Al Husayn district of Amarah, June 29. (US Army photo) Iraqi forces detained four senior Sadrists members of the Maysan provincial council on Wednesday in the latest series of aids targeting senior Sadrist leaders in the former Mahdi Army bastion of Maysan province. Meanwhile, Iraqi special forces uncovered a Mahdi Army headquarters and several large weapons caches in the provincial capital. Police and...

Click to view images froma patrol in Northeast Baghdad. Photos by Bill Murray. BAGHDAD, IRAQ: It’s near noon on a Friday in Northeast Baghdad and the neighborhoods the U.S. military calls Muhallahs 535 and 734 are quiet. It’s the weekend, and many adults are at the local mosques for worship, leaving the streets filled with dozens of adolescent boys, yelling, kicking and raising minor havoc on bicycles, soccer balls and the unlucky stray dog. As U.S. Army Specialist Luis Garza and 2nd Lieutenant Jonathon Logan patrol the neighborhoods, they remember these streets during a less docile time. Both men...

The Democrats now find themselves in a thoroughly uncomfortable dilemma over Iraq. Back in the early days of the American invasion, when things were going relatively badly, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the war was "lost" and America's only recourse was to pull out. (This, of course, would have been an absolute political disaster for the Bush administration, as Mr. Reid no doubt knew and hoped.) In the subsequent months and years, when things there have gone substantially better, Mr. Reid has never retracted his highly premature conclusion but it is safe to say it is now "inoperative."...

Seems like Moqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American Iraqi Shiite cleric hiding in Iran, has decided to become Iraq’s version of Benedict Arnold: The Mehdi Army of Moqtada Sadr is evolving into a clandestine movement following Iraqi military operations targeting the group, intelligence suggests.The military wing of the Sadrist Movement, the political party loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, is “turning itself into a secret armed organization,” an Iraqi intelligence official told the Gulf News on condition of anonymity.Iraqi intelligence reports suggest the group’s numbers have dwindled from around 50,000 to as few as 150 in the past few years.Intelligence officials credit...

Muqtada al-Sadr. The Mahdi Army has suffered a significant blow during fighting against Iraqi and Coalition forces this year, according to an Iraq intelligence report. The heavy casualties sustained by the Mahdi Army have forced Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi Army and the Sadrist political movement, to change his tactics and disband the Mahdi Army in favor of a small, secretive fighting force. "More than 2,000 cadres from the Mahdi Army leaders were killed recently," an Iraqi intelligence official told the Gulf News. "This led to the almost complete collapse of the army," the official said....

BAGHDAD, IRAQ: Iraqi and Coalition forces in and around Baghdad captured more than 100 insurgents and defused 147 improved explosive devices during the past week as part of continued security operations, according to Iraqi and Coalition spokesmen. One insurgent was killed, six kidnap victims liberated and about 700 kilograms of TNT discovered during security sweeps in the past seven days, said Iraqi Army spokesman Major General Qassim Atta during a press conference in Baghdad today. The current security plan, called Fardh al-Qanoon, or `Enforcing the Law,’ has been in place since early 2007, when U.S. planners began implementing a U.S....

Iraqi security forces continue to target the Sadrist movement and the Mahdi Army in the southern provinces of Maysan, Dhi Qhar, and Wasit over the weekend. More than 113 Mahdi Army fighters and Sadrists were detained since Friday, including a senior Sadrist leader in the city of Al Kut. The arrests come as a major operation was launched in the former Mahdi Army stronghold in Maysan province. On Saturday, Iraqi forces detained Sayyid Tahseen, a senior member of Muqtada al Sadr's political movement, in Al Kut in Wasit province. Iraqi police described Tahseen as "one of the most important individual...

After successful efforts to restore order in the Sadr City section of Baghdad, as well as Basra and Mosul, Iraqi security forces now are focused on conducting anti-insurgent operations in the southeastern city of Amarah, a senior U.S. military officer said in Baghdad today. Navy Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll told reports during a Baghdad news conference that Iraq’s soldiers and police are doing “their job to make sure the citizens of this country are no longer intimidated by terrorists and extremist militias and their work is being followed by other areas of government.” On June 18, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri...

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2008 – U.S. and Iraqi forces discovered and confiscated weapons caches and captured insurgents during ongoing operations over the past several days in Iraq. In Baghdad today, Iraqi police seized an explosively formed projectile and several machine-gun rounds during operations in the New Baghdad district. In another operation, police uncovered a weapons cache in New Baghdad consisting of mortar rounds, a rocket, an artillery round, a number of machine-gun rounds, a mortar base plate, a telescopic sight, explosives, a night vision device and a rocket sled. Iraqi soldiers later confiscated several AK-47 rifles, two magazines and a...

Iraqi Special Operations Forces captured a senior Mahdi Army commander with "close ties" to Muqtada al Sadr's office in Najaf on June 19. Two other senior Mahdi Army commanders in Baghdad and Hillah were captured on June 20 and 21. The Mahdi Army commander captured by Iraqi special forces is thought to be "an influential advisor in west Baghdad" with close ties to the Office of the [Martyr] Sadr in Najaf," Multinational Forces Iraq reported. The commander also is able to appoint Mahdi Army officers into command positions. The US military would not release the identity of the leader as...

Sadr's Special Groups By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Bill Roggio June 13, 2008 This article was originally published in the Weekly Standard.   In the past month, Iraqi and coalition forces have succeeded in their fight against the Mahdi Army's "special groups." On May 3, the U.S. military destroyed a special groups’ command center in Sadr City, killing a wanted leader in the attack. On May 25, Iraqi special operations forces captured a mid-level special groups leader in the al-Shuala area of Baghdad. And on May 31, Iraqi special operations forces captured another special groups "criminal" in Baghdad who was suspected of...

The Iraqi security forces have detained five senior Sadrist leaders and a department director in Maysan province during Operation Promise of Peace. The Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the Sadrist movement, has not put up any opposition to the government’s efforts to secure Maysan, a Sadrist stronghold on the Iranian border. Iraqi forces are conducting a series of raids in Amarah and throughout the southern province, "capturing key targets including government officials wanted by the authorities in a number of cases," said Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalaf, a spokesman for Iraq's Ministry of the Interior. "Five officials from the...

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2008 – U.S. and Iraqi troops detained 35 suspected terrorists during recent operations in northern Iraq, military officials said. Coalition forces captured 21 suspected terrorists in various operations today across northern Iraq: -- Eight were detained in Tarmiyah, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, for their alleged association with a terrorist network responsible for numerous bombings, murders and hijackings, and for transporting terrorists throughout the country, officials said. -- Coalition forces captured six suspected terrorists in Mosul. One man is wanted for his connections with al-Qaida leaders and foreign-terrorist facilitators throughout the country. Five others were detained...

According the WaPo it appears the Iranians miscalculated when they backed Sadr instead of the Maliki government: For the first time since 2003, Iran has stumbled in Iraq. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s decision to confront Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in Basra and Sadr City last month caught Tehran off guard. The Mahdi Army lost more than face: It surrendered large caches of arms, and many of its leaders fled or were killed or captured. Crucially, the militias lost strategic terrain — Basra and its chokehold on the causeway between Kuwait and Baghdad and Iraq’s oil exports; Sadr City and the...

The Iraqi security forces today formally kicked off the operations against the Mahdi Army in the southern province of Maysan. On the day the government's amnesty offer expired, the Iraqi Army and police conducted multiple raids throughout Amarah, the provincial capital. A senior Sadrist was detained during the raids. Iraqi forces arrested Rafeaa Jabar, the head of the Sadrist office in Maysan province. He is the mayor of Amarah and the deputy governor of the province. The Sadrists had stated they feared being the target of the operation. "We do not want Basrah events to be repeated in Amara," Sheikh...

AMARA, Iraq (AFP) — Dozens of Shiite militiamen surrendered to Iraqi forces on Wednesday hours before a deadline set by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for them to lay down their arms ahead of a new military crackdown.Officials said the four-day deadline given to the fighters in the southern oil rich province of Maysan was successful although some militants had escaped ahead of the crackdown set to begin at midnight (2100 GMT)."The deadline has been very successful. We have received many weapons, especially today," Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassem Mohammed told AFP.Mohammed said some militiamen had ran away before the start...

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2008 – U.S. and Iraqi troops killed one enemy fighter and detained 23 suspected terrorists during recent operations in northern Iraq, military officials said. Coalition forces targeted al-Qaida in Iraq operatives in and around Mosul, killing one and detaining 15 today. In operations yesterday: -- Coalition forces in Biaj, about 80 miles southwest of Mosul, came under attack and returned fire, resulting in one attacker dead, one wounded and six others captured. Eight other suspected terrorists were captured in separate operations in Mosul. -- Also in Mosul, Iraqi troops captured a suspected terrorist leader. He’s believed to...

AMARAH, Iraq, June 18 (UPI) -- Iraqi officials say radical Shiite militias have agreed to let the government retake control of provincial capital without a fight. Forces loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr have told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki they won't offer resistance when an expected offensive to take control of Amarah, capital of Maysan province, begins this week, USA Today reported Wednesday. In a change of strategy, the Iraqi government gave ample warning to Sadr's militia forces they were coming to retake the city, which until recently had been in control of the militants. An Iraqi military official...

Yesterday's car bomb attack in the Shia neighborhood of Hayy Hurriyah in Baghdad's Kadamiyah district was carried out by a Mahdi Army Special Group cell, and not al Qaeda in Iraq, the US military stated. The bombing was the largest inside Baghdad since March. The Iraqi military indicates 27 Iraqis were killed and 40 wounded, while press reports put the number killed as high as 51, with more than 80 wounded. A Mahdi Army cell leader named Haydar Mahdi Khadum Al Fawadi was behind the attack, according to intelligence information obtained by Multinational Forces Iraq. "We believe the attack was...

The defeat of Sadr, the Sadrist Movement and their thuggish Mahdi Militia continues apace today as massive numbers of gunmen turn themselves into authorities in Amarah, capitol city of Maysan Province along the Iranian border: Gunmen from different armed groups have begun to surrender to Iraqi government troops in the city of Amarah ahead of a military crackdown due to start there later this week, an Interior Ministry official said on Tuesday.

Iraqi troops replace border guards. Local police forces are raised. Maliki gives deadline for Mahdi Army to disarm. Sadrists fear being targeted. The Iraqi government and military continue to shape the battlefield for the confrontation with the Mahdi Army in Maysan province. Starting late last week, Iraqi security forces started the operation by sealing off the entrances and exits to the province, deploying additional forces from Baghdad and Basrah, warning the population, starting patrols in Amarah, and relieving the provincial chief of police. Since then, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has ordered all wanted Mahdi Army fighters to turn themselves...

Iraqi and US forces were poised to strike a key Shia militia stronghold in southern Iraq yesterday as Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, pushed ahead with his campaign to rid the country of al-Mahdi Army gunmen. A woman holds a portrait of the radical cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr Iraqi army tanks, armoured troop carriers and infantrymen surrounded al-Amarah, a lawless tribal city near the Iranian border that is renowned for its smuggling rings. It once held a British base but the army was mortared so heavily by al-Mahdi Army irregulars that it withdrew to patrol the Iranian frontier. Mr al-Maliki...

BAGHDAD — U.S. Soldiers captured a suspected militant leader in the New Baghdad security district of eastern Baghdad, June 15. Soldiers from the 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light), captured the suspected criminal leader and detained two others during an operation. BAGHDAD — U.S. Soldiers captured a suspected militant leader in the New Baghdad security district of eastern Baghdad, June 15. Soldiers from the 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light), captured the suspected criminal leader and detained two others during an operation. The highly sought-after criminal leader is believed to...

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2008 – Forces in Iraq detained 20 suspects and have found several weapons caches during operations over the last three days, military officials said. Coalition forces in Mosul captured two wanted men and detained nine other al-Qaida in Iraq suspects during operations today. One of the wanted men, an alleged bombing cell leader, was captured along with five suspected associates. The wanted man also is believed to manufacture bombs and target Iraqi and coalition forces. The other wanted man has alleged ties to al-Qaida in Iraq senior leaders and was captured with four additional suspects. Officials said...

The Shiite government signals a desire for an alliance with the United States. Shouldn't that be welcomed?THOUGH IT was hardly noticed in Washington, Iraq's Shiite-led government sent a powerful message to Iran and to the Middle East last week. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose coalition is often portrayed as an Iranian client, traveled to Tehran for a meeting with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The ayatollah bluntly declared that Iraq's "most important problem" was the continuing presence of U.S. troops. He pressured Mr. Maliki to stop negotiating a package of agreements with the Bush administration that would delineate a "strategic...

WASHINGTON, June 15, 2008 – Coalition and Iraqi forces captured suspected terrorists and seized several weapons caches across Iraq during the past three days, military officials said. In operations today: –- Iraqi soldiers discovered a large weapons cache in the Rashid district of Baghdad. The cache consisted of scores of 122 mm rockets with fuses, components to make several hundred explosively formed projectiles, blocks of C-4 explosives, and sticks of TNT. During operations yesterday: –- Iraqi soldiers discovered a large explosives cache after an intelligence-driven raid on the western side of Mosul. The cache consisted of 80 mm mortar rounds,...

Muqtada al Sadr. Muqtada al Sadr has ordered the Sadrist political movement to boycott the upcoming provincial elections. Sadr's order comes one day after his order to disband the Mahdi Army as a fighting force and the creations of a small, armed wing to attack Coalition forces exclusively. Sadrist aides claim Sadr rejects the election process and fears being associated with the occupation. "Sayyid Muqtada does not believe in elections or in the coming provincial governments as long as the occupation forces are here," Salah al Obaidi, a senior aide to Sadr, told The Washington Post. "We don't want...

The US Army captured a senior Mahdi Army military commander in Baghdad. The Mahdi Army commander led a 2,000-man strong brigade in the Karadah district in eastern Baghdad, Multinational Forces Iraq reported. The US military could not release the commander’s name as they are still exploiting the intelligence information related to his capture, Major Joey Sullinger, a public affairs officer for Multinational Division Baghdad told The Long War Journal. The commander was detained during a raid in the Sumer al Ghadier neighborhood in the New Baghdad district, which borders Karadah to the north. US soldiers from the 66th Armor Regiment...

An Iraqi tank is stationed on the main road leading into Amarah. AFP photo. Iraqi security forces, backed by the US military, have started an operation against the Mahdi Army in the southern border province of Maysan. Amarah, the provincial capital of Maysan, is thought to be one of the locations senior Mahdi Army leader retreated to after Iraqi forces moved into Sadr City last month. Amarah is also a forward command and control hub for Iranian operations in southern Iraq. Iraqi security forces established checkpoints along the entrances to the province, and have closed down the border crossing...

BAGHDAD — Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr revealed Friday that he plans to create a powerful new fighting force to battle what he calls "the occupiers" in Iraq. Al-Sadr's announcement came in the form of a statement read after Friday prayers in the holy Shiite city of Kufa. The statement called on his nearly 60,00-strong Mahdi Army militia to exercise restraint. "The resistance will be carried out exclusively by a special group which I will announce later," Sadr's statement read, adding that "weapons will be in the hands of this group exclusively and will only be directed at the occupier,"...

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2008 – Coalition forces in Iraq today captured a man believed to be the leader of an Iranian-backed enemy “special group” and another who's an alleged al-Qaida chieftain during separate operations conducted near Kut and in Mosul, respectively, military officials said. Coalition forces captured the suspected Iranian-trained explosives expert in Numaniyah, southeast of Baghdad near Kut. Intelligence sources told coalition officials the suspect has numerous Iranian contacts with whom he would meet when smuggling weapons and bomb-making materials into Iraq. Coalition forces entered the suspect’s residence and subdued him without firing any shots after the man made...

Iraqi police have captured three Iranian-backed Special Groups operatives behind the kidnapping and murder of five US soldiers at the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center in January 2007. Meanwhile, US troops captured another Special Groups leader in the Al Kut region, The Iraqi police captured the three "key criminals" behind the 2007 Karbala attack in Musayyib, just south of Baghdad, on June 5. The three Special Groups operatives are "suspected of trafficking and emplacing explosively formed projectiles." Explosively formed projectiles are the signature weapon of Shia terrorists with links to Iran. The US military immediately suspected Iran's Qods Force, the...

Sadr returns to Iraq for a short period of time in May 2007 to deliver a sermon in Kufa. [AP Photo] Click to view. Written by Bill Roggio and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross for The Daily Standard. IN THE PAST MONTH, Iraqi and coalition forces have succeeded in their fight against the Mahdi Army's "special groups." On May 3, the U.S. military destroyed a special groups command center in Sadr City, killing a wanted leader in the attack. On May 25, Iraqi special operations forces captured a mid-level special groups leader in the al-Shuala area of Baghdad. And on May 31,...

WASHINGTON, June 9, 2008 – Coalition forces killed five enemy fighters, destroyed a foreign terrorist hideout, and detained seven terrorism suspects in operations across Iraq today. A tip from a detainee led coalition forces to a foreign terrorist hideout site in a remote area of northwestern Iraq. When forces arrived, enemy fighters attacked. Coalition forces returned fire and called in air support. Five terrorists were killed. Forces found several suicide vests and heavy machine guns at the site. The site was destroyed. Also today, coalition forces targeted members of a terrorist bombing network in Beiji, south of Mosul, and detained...

Several thousand demonstrators protested against the US in rallies across the country on Friday. The placard says: ’No agreement with US occupiers’ American troops in Iraq would be confined to their bases and private security guards subject to local law if Iraq gets its way in negotiations with the US over the future status of American forces. According to a senior Iraqi official, the negotiations between the two allies became so fraught recently that President Bush intervened personally to defuse the situation. On Thursday he telephoned Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, to assure him that Washington was not seeking...

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi Army and National Police turned in weapons in separate incidents throughout Baghdad, while Multi National Division – Baghdad Soldiers detained suspected criminals June 7. At approximately 12:30 p.m., June 7, policemen from the 2nd National Police Division turned in a weapons cache found in the Kadamiyah district to MND-B Soldiers. The cache, brought to the 2nd NP headquarters by a local citizen, consisted of a 60 mm mortar tube, two rockets, two smoke grenades, an 82 mm mortar round; 26, 82 mm mortar rounds; five 82 mm illumination mortar rounds; 42, 60 mm mortar rounds and...

TIKRIT, Iraq – Iraqi Army soldiers with the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, uncovered several weapons caches in Sadr City, Baghdad, June 7. The soldiers seized a weapons cache at approximately 5:30 a.m. consisting of an explosively formed projectile, a 155 mm artillery round, an improvised-explosive device, explosive wire, two anti-tank rockets and an anti-aircraft rocket. At approximately 5:45 a.m., soldiers in the same unit discovered two more caches, the first of which consisted of two 60 mm mortar rounds, three machine guns, four Russian sniper rifles, five AK-47 magazines and 200 AK-47 rounds. The second cache consisted of a rocket...

BAGHDAD – Iraqi National Police and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers seized a number of weapons caches and killed one criminal June 6 in Baghdad. Soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, discovered 11 rocket warheads, four 122mm mortar rounds, a rocket tube, and a medium-sized bomb at approximately 10:15 a.m. northwest of Baghdad. National Police from the 8th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, seized 16 rocket-propelled grenades, eight boosters, a pineapple grenade and an RPG night site at approximately 10:40 a.m. in the Oubaidy area of New Baghdad. Iraqi NPs from 2nd Bde., 1st NP...

BAGHDAD – Coalition forces killed four terrorists and destroyed two foreign terrorist safe-houses in northwest Iraq Saturday, also capturing two wanted men in Mosul. Near Bi’aj, about 130 kilometers southwest of Mosul, Coalition forces targeted several foreign terrorist safe-houses. At the first location, the force immediately came under attack by small arms fire. Coalition forces responded in self-defense, returning fire and calling for supporting aircraft to engage the enemy. Four terrorists were killed in the ensuing engagement. Coalition forces discovered a vehicle with a foreign license plate adjacent to one of the target buildings. Inside the building they found weapons,...

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Army soldiers seized multiple weapons caches in Sadr City June 6. The IA soldiers with the 3rd Brigade, 1st IA Division discovered 15 AK-47s, 200 AK-47 rounds, two Berno rifles, a damaged rocket launcher, 14 fake identification cards, three license plates and an 8 mm video tape at approximately 6 a.m. At approximately 8:15 a.m., the soldiers seized a sniper rifle, an AK-47, 100 PKC rounds, five rocket-propelled grenade propellants and a Baghdad protection badge. Iraqi soldiers from the 68th Brigade, 11th IA Division seized 25 82 mm mortar rounds, 19 artillery rounds, six 60 mm mortar...

WASHINGTON, June 6, 2008 – U.S. Central Command is part of an Interagency Task Force for Irregular Warfare, a CentCom operations section initiative that recently stood up to track and target “violent and extreme actors” in the command’s area of operations, the Air Force general who’s spearheading the effort said yesterday. “Regionally, we look at influences of extreme actors that are malign that would provide, from within their borders, exporting either violence or activities that would be disruptive to their neighbors,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert H. Holmes, CentCom’s deputy director of operations, said to online journalists and bloggers during...

WASHINGTON, June 6, 2008 – Coalition forces killed four enemy fighters and detained dozens of suspected terrorists in recent operations, military officials said. The leader of an Iranian-backed “special group” surrendered to coalition forces today in Hayy, about 190 miles southeast of Baghdad. Acting on intelligence information, coalition forces raided the presumed residence of the special group leader, who’s suspected of directing and ordering attacks against coalition forces in Wasit province, as well as attacks and kidnappings against civil authorities there. The man also is suspected of smuggling Iranian weapons -- specifically, Katyusha rockets -- into Baghdad. In a separate...