Iraqi Guard Find Munitions, Four Kidnappers
The successful mission shows the progress the Iraqi National Guard has made in recent months.
By U.S. Army Cpl. Bill Putnam122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
CAMP AL-SAQR, BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 15, 2004 — Soldiers from the 304th Iraqi National Guard Battalion found several weapons and two potential improvised explosive devices during Operation Lion’s Pride II on Dec. 11.
The Iraqi soldiers even stopped the kidnapping of an Iraqi police officer’s son, said Capt. Dan Gelderman, the 5th Brigade Combat Team’s senior adviser to the 304th Iraqi National Guard.
These battalion-sized operations aren’t anything new for the unit, said Capt. Mike Cole, the adviser team leader for Company A, 304th Iraqi National Guard. They unit has run about 10 since June, he said.
The overall search was conducted and led by Iraqi National Guard soldiers. Company A, 304th Iraqi National Guard Battalion, sealed off the area for elements for the 304th’s Headquarters and Delta Companies to search. Previous searches through the area were fruitful. Units have found rockets, mortar tubes and arms caches, Cole said.
“So there was the possibility of them finding at least something because it is such a large area,” Cole said.
Most of the search area was made up of farm fields and date palm groves. But overall the search went quickly.
By 11 a.m., the search had turned up what the Iraqi National Guard told Cole were two rockets. Later it turned out they were just tank rounds.
“It’s not unexpected they’d turn something up,” Cole said.
After running so many missions over the last few months, the Iraqis are now essentially running operations on their own. For example, before a mission now the advisers give the unit’s leadership a quick brief and the Iraqi sergeants and officers take care of briefing their men, said Sgt. Josh Abbatoye, an adviser of Cole’s team.
“They just react quick and execute the mission,” Abbatoye said.

U.S. Army Capt. Mike Cole, the lead adviser for the Company A, 304th Iraqi National Guard Battalion’s Advisory Support Team, talks over the radio to a sergeant from the company during Operations Lion Pride II, Dec. 11, 2004. U.S. Army photo by Cpl. Bill Putnam
The company’s mission for Lion’s Pride II was pretty simple, he said. They would set up several blocking positions on the main dirt roads that ran through the search area.
“Pretty simple mission,” Abbatoye said. “No one gets in, no one gets out.”
And that’s pretty much how it did turn out. With the exception of the company stopping a kidnapping, the whole morning went by quickly.
The Iraqi National Guard at one blocking position stopped a car with four men and a young boy trying to leave the area, said Gelderman. The men were questioned and said they’d accidentally hit the boy while he rode his bike. They were just taking the boy to hospital. The Iraqi National Guard then questioned the boy. He said they’re kidnapping me. The four were men were detained and turned over to the 304th Iraqi National Guard’s higher headquarters, the 40th Iraqi National Guard Brigade. It turns out the boy’s father is an Iraqi police officer.
The mission was also a sign of how much progress the Iraqi National Guard have made over the last few months. The Iraqi National Guard went out and set up the blocking positions own their own. After a few minutes the advisers went out and checked on them. Checking up on them would have been impossible a few months ago.
“They had all the blocking positions set up and they were good to go,” Abbatoye said.
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