Coalition Forces killed several terrorists and destroyed three trucks with mounted anti-aircraft weapons May 8 after discovering a pack of terrorists firing on a house northeast of Karmah.
Intelligence reports and surveillance of a known al-Qaeda in Iraq meeting location led Coalition Forces to three trucks, two of which carried mounted anti-aircraft artillery weapons. Coalition Forces followed the vehicles to an area where terrorists emerged from the vehicles and engaged two houses with heavy fire. The ground attack was assessed to be practice for possible future attacks against Coalition Forces.
Coalition Forces continued to follow the vehicles as they left the target practice location and waited until the armed vehicles were away from potential civilian casualties. A fixed-wing aircraft was called in to destroy the vehicles. One truck with an anti-aircraft weapon and two sedans associated with the trucks were destroyed, killing an estimated 10 to 14 terrorists.
The two remaining trucks departed the strike scene in different directions, but Coalition Forces continued to follow them. Each was destroyed in a separate air strike after the vehicle’s occupants abandoned it and fled the scene.
Coalition Forces followed an additional vehicle from the scene of the first strike and targeted the building it returned to in an overnight raid. Eight suspected terrorists were detained in the raid, and one was treated for shrapnel wounds he received from the air strike earlier in the evening.
“These strikes caused significant damage and disruption to an organized anti-aircraft cell in Anbar province, and the destruction of these weapons diminishes al-Qaeda’s ability to target security forces protecting the people of Iraq,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesperson.
The VIDEO can be seen on the MNF-I Website at this LINK
(Taken from press release #A070511a by MNF-I - Combined Press Information Center, Baghdad, Iraq)
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