Execution Site Discovered, Eight Suspects Detained

About Photo: Cache destroyed.. Coalition Forces destroy three buildings that had been used by al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorists to make homemade explosives in the Arab Jabour region of Iraq.
USAF photo by Staff Sgt. Jorge A. Rodriguez

Execution Site Discovered, Eight Suspects Detained

Coalition Forces uncovered a terrorist execution site and a building suspected of being a car bomb factory during an operation Aug. 21-23 south of Baghdad.

As Coalition Forces entered the Arab Jabour area, they immediately received small arms fire. The assault force returned fire, killing one terrorist.

During the 24-hour operation, Coalition Forces discovered an area used by terrorists as an execution and dumping site. The ground forces found human skulls, decomposing bodies and bones wrapped in bloody clothes. Wild dogs were rampant around the area, which was characterized by a crater where most of the human remains were dumped. Inside a nearby building, the ground forces found blood spatter and other signs indicating executions had taken place there. In another building, Coalition Forces found several improvised explosive devices in the area and a weapons cache that included trigger wires.

Intelligence reports indicate that al-Qaeda in Iraq operates in the area, and weapons caches in the area contain materials used in the Baghdad car-bombing network. Local Iraqis helped Coalition Forces find a stash of homemade explosives and a building that was suspected of being a car bomb factory. Inside the compound, the ground forces found numerous items used to make and mix homemade explosives for use in car bombs. An air strike destroyed the explosives cache. Eight suspected terrorists were detained during the operation for their association with al-Qaeda in Iraq and conducting terrorist activities in the Arab Jabour region.

“Al-Qaeda in Iraq members are ruthless terrorists who brutalize, torture, and murder innocent Iraqis in their campaign of senseless terror,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesperson. “We will continue to hunt down and kill or capture these brutal terrorists who seek to deny Iraqis a future of their choice.”

(From press release #A070825a by MNF-I, Press Desk - Baghdad, Iraq)