Soldiers Detain Suspected Terrorists, Secure Enemy Weapons Caches
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2006 � Coalition forces in Iraq yesterday found and destroyed weapons caches, detained terrorist suspects, and recovered the remains of a terrorist bomber who inadvertently killed himself, U.S. military officials there reported.
The terrorist bomber was killed near Tal Afar when a roadside bomb he was emplacing detonated prematurely. Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment discovered the bomber's body and part of a shovel near a blast crater.
This is the second such incident over the past three days, officials said. Two terrorists were killed Jan. 9 while emplacing a roadside bomb near Samarra. An improvised explosive device attack against coalition forces near Balad yesterday resulted in the capture of four terrorism suspects. The IED was detonated as it was being investigated by a patrol from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.
A coalition aircraft spotted the four men running from the area into nearby homes and guided in more ground forces, who quickly captured the suspected terrorists. No soldiers were injured during the incident, but one coalition vehicle was slightly damaged.
Coalition soldiers found several large weapons caches southwest of Baghdad. The caches included ammunition rounds, mortars, bipods, radios, rockets and rocket warheads.
In Babil province, coalition soldiers found and destroyed a large roadside bomb-making cache. The cache had six propane tanks with emplacement wire. An explosive ordnance disposal team detonated the cache.
Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division, discovered a cache when they observed loose dirt alongside railroad tracks. The cache had artillery rounds, spent illumination mortar rounds, artillery projectile fuses and pressure plates. A bomb disposal team destroyed the cache.
(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq, Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq and Task Force Ironhorse news releases.)