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WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2006 – U.S. soldiers killed and captured terrorism suspects in Iraq Jan. 2, and U.S. and Iraqi forces seized weapons caches, military officials reported today.
Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, killed a suspected terrorist and captured another after an attack on a coalition base near Balad. The soldiers immediately captured one suspect, but chased the second for two hours. The chase ended when the soldiers cornered the suspect in a grove of palm trees and killed him with return fire, officials said. In another incident near Hawijah, soldiers detained two bombing suspects after a coalition aircraft observed them digging alongside a road Jan. 2. The 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team stopped the suspects' vehicle and one tested positive for explosives residue. A bomb-sniffing dog signaled that the truck had been used to carry explosives. In other news, soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team seized a mortar round and detonating fuses after a local civilian led them to a cache in Mosul. Also, Iraqi soldiers seized tank rounds, pistols, a rocket-propelled grenade and AK-47 assault rifle magazines with 100 rounds near Samarra after another tip, officials said. In Diwaniyah and Wasit provinces, coalition and Iraqi soldiers seized more weapon caches and six men were detained. The weapons cache contained mines, artillery and mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenade launchers with 69 rounds, hand grenades, sniper rifles, machine guns and explosive material. (Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)
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