Iraq: Terrorists Killed in Firefight

Task Force Baghdad soldiers killed three terrorists and detained one insurgent suspected in drive-by shooting attacks Oct. 25, officials in Baghdad reported today.

The terrorists, driving a white sedan, were suspected of several small-arms fire attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces over the last few days. Officials said around noon Oct. 25, an Iraqi police van transporting prisoners to the Abu Ghraib detention facility came under small-arms fire in the Ghazaliyah neighborhood in western Baghdad.

One guard was killed, five were wounded and at least two prisoners were wounded when the bus veered off the road and rolled onto its side, officials said.

Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, responded to treat and evacuate the wounded.

Iraqi police spotted the white sedan with four occupants wearing black masks fleeing the scene of the attack. The white vehicle and its occupants were spotted again about an hour later when they fired on Iraqi army forces near the same area, officials reported.

Three hours later in the Khadra neighborhood, soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry, and 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry, spotted the terrorists again and gave chase. The terrorists responded with gunfire and a firefight broke out, which resulted in the killing of two terrorists and the wounding of a third, who was immediately transported to a military medical treatment facility where he later died from his wounds, officials reported. A fourth terrorist was detained.

The vehicle was loaded with three AK-47 assault rifles, a Romanian machine gun, a 9 mm pistol, a fragmentary grenade, 12 AK-47 magazines loaded with ammunition, and more than 150 rounds of linked machine-gun ammunition, officials said. In Taji, north of Baghdad, Task Force Baghdad soldiers discovered a large weapons cache while conducting combat operations Oct. 24, officials said.

The cache contained more than 120 mortar rounds, 49 tank and artillery rounds, eight cases of small-arms ammunition, dozens of rockets, three boxes of mortar fuses, a rocket-propelled grenade warhead and two anti-aircraft gun barrels, officials noted.

Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment, which is attached to 70th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, excavated the stockpile of weapons.
An explosives ordnance disposal team destroyed the cache to prevent its use against coalition and Iraqi forces. Task force soldiers detained 12 individuals for further questioning about the weapons cache.
(Info from DoD- American Forces Press Service- Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Task Force Baghdad news releases.)