By Jim Garamone and Petty Officer 2nd Class Carolla Bennett, USN
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 23, 2006 – Coalition forces detained a dozen suspected terrorists today and yesterday, and uncovered large weapons caches around Baghdad, officials in Iraq reported today.
Coalition soldiers detained three Iraqi men and an Iraqi woman today while conducting combat operations near Abu Ghraib.
The woman was allegedly attempting to hide about 50 blasting caps under her clothing when detained. Coalition troops also confiscated several AK-47 assault rifles, a pistol and a sniper rifle.
The incident remains under investigation. Yesterday, eight suspected terrorists were detained during a combat patrol south of Baghdad.
Soldiers from Multinational Division Baghdad’s 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, detained seven Iraqis suspected of running a bomb-making facility west of al Yusufiyah.
Later in the day, a local resident pointed out another suspect to MNDB soldiers conducting a patrol near Abu Ghraib. They detained him along with an AK-47 rifle. In other news, during a search of two houses in the southwestern suburbs of Baghdad, MNDB soldiers from 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, uncovered a large cache of weapons yesterday.
In the first house, the cache consisted of two 55-gallon drums of homemade explosives, two pressure plates, one artillery shell, a homemade rocket launcher, two pipes filled with high-explosive material, a 7-foot missile, a 14.5 mm Dishka heavy artillery machine gun, and six anti-tank mines.
In the second house, about 150 meters east of the first one, a second cache was found comprising eight shape charges, a sniper rifle, five pressure plates, three rocket-propelled grenades, an acetylene tank and two grenades taped to a window. The interior of the rear door appeared to contain an unfinished booby trap.
Inside, soldiers also found a note asking other terrorists for help to attack a local coalition forces operating base. An explosive ordinance disposal team destroyed the caches on site.
Also, soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, found a weapons cache in a New Baghdad neighborhood April 20.
The cache included 81 75 mm projectiles, 43 grenades, three 82 mm illumination rounds, one 85 mm projectile, two 90 mm high-explosive rounds and four 100 mm heat projectiles.
Iraqi and U.S. explosive ordnance disposal teams destroyed the cache on site.
(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq.)