Terrorist Cell Leader Captured- Soldiers Destroy Weapons Caches

Iraqi and U. S. soldiers captured a terrorist cell leader, and more weapons caches have been found and destroyed, military officials reported.

Officials at Forward Operation Base Kalsu said soldiers from 4th Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, conducted the main assault effort to capture the terrorist March 26 in the town of Haswa, about 60 miles south of Baghdad. U. S. soldiers from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, provided outer cordon security, officials said.

The suspected cell leader and six others were captured. No damage to personnel, equipment or buildings occurred during the raid, officials said. Elsewhere, soldiers of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, Task Force Band of Brothers, found four weapons caches March 28 in Salah Ad Din province, about 80 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Pathfinders... infantry soldiers specially trained to provide navigational assistance and advisory services to military aircraft... discovered weaponry and ammunition as they searched several locations in the Sheri Lake area.

The caches contained 20 rockets, 53 rocket-propelled grenades, three anti-aircraft missiles with two launchers, an anti-tank missile, 24 mortar rounds, a mortar tube, and a variety of small-caliber artillery rounds. In addition to the ordnance, soldiers found items commonly used in roadside bombs.

Explosive ordnance disposal personnel destroyed all of the items, officials said.
(Above courtesy of DoD - American Forces Press Service and compiled from MNF-I news releases)