Coalition, Iraqi Forces Seize Numerous Weapons Caches

In operations today:

-- Iraqi National Police officers confiscated two rocket-propelled grenades, two RPG rounds, more than 80 AK-47s, three SKS rifles, three 9 mm pistols, a 38 mm pistol, four radio handsets with batteries and an unknown amount of detonation cord this morning. Later, officers from the same unit seized what coalition officials call an “explosively formed penetrator,” or EFP -- a powerful roadside bomb designed to pierce armor – as well as two RPG launchers with rounds, four two-way radios and command wire from a house in New Baghdad.

-- Another Iraqi National Police unit seized two EFPs in the trunk of a car in the New Baghdad district.

-- Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, acting on a tip from an Iraqi citizen, seized 11 RPGs and nine fuses.

In operations yesterday:

-- Iraqi police in Mosul found a large enemy weapons cache and detained five suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq members. The cache consisted of more than 80 roadside bombs under construction and more than 60 completed roadside bombs, 250 pounds of TNT, more than 40 homemade sticks of dynamite and more than 10 artillery rounds. This find marked the eighth cache found in Ninevah province within three days, officials said.

-- Iraqi soldiers operating in Baghdad’s Sadr City district during Operation Peace uncovered several weapons caches as they continue to secure the area to protect the local population. One Iraqi unit seized a 155 mm round, 10 RPGs, an AK-47 rifle, a Smirnov sniper rifle, 18 anti-aircraft rounds and nine 7.62 mm magazines. Another unit found an EFP and another uni found four of the armor-piercing bombs.

-- Iraqi National Police found a bag of homemade explosives, an RPK machine gun, an SKS rifle, 37 AK-47s, a bayonet, 50 AK-47 magazines, 82 7.62 mm rounds, two carrying cases, a set of body armor, two spools of wire and an auxiliary front sight.

-- Iraqi soldiers, acting on a citizen’s tip found three AK-47s, 27 AK-47 magazines, seven hand grenades, 500 PKC rounds, five cell phones, two cell-phone chargers, five chest bandoliers, two tactical vests, two spools of wire, a rifle, 120 rounds of ammunition, three RPG launchers, a Smirnov rifle, six roadside bombs, including four EFPs, a set of Russian night-vision goggles, a crate of TNT and 200 7.62 mm rounds.

-- Iraqi soldiers seized 200 pounds of homemade explosives.

-- Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers found several weapons caches and detained two suspects in and around Baghdad. Soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team seized three 60 mm mortar rounds. Northwest of the Iraqi capital, soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division’s 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team found various mortar rounds, two machine guns and the remnants of an anti-tank mine.

-- “Sons of Iraq” citizen-security group members, along with soldiers with 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, currently supporting the 4th Infantry Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, detained a suspected criminal in the northern Baghdad district of Adhamiyah.

-- In the New Baghdad district, Soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team spotted men transporting weapons. The soldiers wounded and detained one of them.

-- Coalition forces captured two men wanted for their alleged connection to al-Qaida in Iraq car bombing networks in Baghdad. Information from a May 5 operation led Coalition forces to one of the wanted men in Baghdad, who allegedly was involved in a suicide bombing attack that killed five U.S. soldiers, officials said. The second wanted man was detained near Balad, about 60 kilometers north of Baghdad. Two additional suspected terrorists were detained in the operations.

-- Troops detained eight suspected terrorists in a series of coalition operations between Beiji and Tikrit. As coalition forces arrived at one targeted building, three armed men tried to evade them. Coalition forces fired warning shots, but then shot and killed the men when they continued toward the security perimeter. In their vehicle, troops found additional weapons, including a machine gun, grenades and bomb-making materials, which they safely destroyed on site, officials said.

-- In Mosul, coalition forces noted small-arms fire from two separate positions while closing in on targeted locations in their operation. Responding in self-defense, they returned fire, but all firing ceased when an Iraqi police patrol was found to be in one of the positions. During the three-way engagement, a man in the area was struck by gunfire. A coalition forces medic treated him, but he died of his wounds before Iraqi emergency services arrived. A Multinational Force Iraq spokesman expressed regret and emphasized that coalition forces do their best to keep citizens from being injured. “We take every precaution to protect innocent civilians and engage only hostile threats,” Army Maj. John Hall said.

-- Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers in the Risala area of the Iraqi capital’s Rashid district found a cache of 180 mortar rounds, a 105 mm mortar round, an Iranian 107 mm rocket, shotgun shells, fuses and two grenades.

In operations May 23:

-- Coalition forces captured two wanted men and one additional suspected terrorist in Baghdad. The wanted men are believed to be car bombers tied to an al-Qaida in Iraq bombing facilitation network that smuggles explosives into the country, officials said.

-- Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division’s Company A, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, seized 107 mm rockets, plastic explosives and fuses inside an abandoned house in the Bayaa community of southern Baghdad’s Rashid district.

-- In the Risalah neighborhood of southern Baghdad, Iraqi National Police seized RPGs with a launcher, an RPG booster, hand grenades, AK-47 rifles and a PKC machine gun.

-- Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s Company A, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, found RPGs, about 600 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, an
AK-47 rifle, various bomb-making materials, and detonation cord and firing wire in the Bayaa community of Baghdad’s Rashid district.

-- Also in the Bayaa area, Iraqi soldiers found four armor-pircing EFPs, four claymore mines, 10 RPG rockets, an AK-47 and 600 AK-47 rounds, 50 pounds of homemade explosives, a 152 mm Yugoslavian projectile, a detonation cord, and firing wire and caps for roadside bombs.

-- Northwest of Baghdad, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers acted on a citizen’s tip and found four 81 mm mortar rounds and a 120 mm mortar round.

-- Under a mortar attack, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers in the Shawra area of New Baghdad called in an aerial weapons team, who fired a Hellfire missile, killing four attackers. Soldiers from the same unit later spotted armed men approaching a joint security station and killed one of them.

-- Iraqi soldiers seized a weapons cache and found a body in a mosque in Baghdad’s Kadamiyah district. The cache included rocket-propelled grenades and launchers, an AK-47, a machine gun, a PKC ammunition canister, a flak vest, a mortar tube and a sniper scope.

-- North of Baghdad, soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team seized about 30 60 mm Iranian mortars with a manufacturing date of 2007, and abouty a dozen 60 mm mortars of unknown origin, plus 82 mm illumination rounds, a 60 mm mortar tube, and various bomb-making materials and assorted ammunition.

-- Iraqi soldiers found a weapons cache hidden in a schoolhouse in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood. The chache included a remote-controlled roadside bomb, six 155 mm artillery rounds, an artillery warhead, an anti-tank mine, four hand grenades, an unknown grenade, two PKC light machine guns, 450 PKC rounds, a 92 mm charge, a Katusha rocket launcher, two bottles of chlorine poison, eight radios and five radio chargers.

-- Iraqi special operations forces captured a suspected mid-level al-Qaeda in Iraq cell leader and three other men in Mosul. The operation’s aim was to capture those believed to be responsible for vehicle-bomb attacks and for forcing others to emplace roadside bombs against their will.

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