KIDNAPPED VICTIM FREED; NINE TERROR SUSPECTS CATURED BY IRAQI SECURITY FORCES
Release Date:
6/23/2006
Release Number:
06-06-02P
Description:
KIRKUK, Iraq (June 23, 2006) � Iraqi Security Forces freed a woman from her kidnapper and captured nine terror suspects during a series of operations in and around Kirkuk, Iraq yesterday. While patrolling a Kirkuk neighborhood, Soldiers from the Iraqi Army�s 2nd Battalion were approached by a resident claiming that a woman who had recently been kidnapped was being held in a nearby house. The soldiers quickly moved to the house, where they found the woman and detained the man who was holding her. The man was taken to an Iraqi Army compound on the outskirts of the city, where he admitted to the crime and then provided information on the whereabouts of his fellow kidnappers. Commanders from the Iraqi battalion coordinated with local police commanders and together the security teams conducted a cordon and search of the neighborhood the men reportedly lived in, resulting in the detention of the three conspirators; the woman was returned to her home in the city. In a separate operation, a city resident led Iraqi police to the location of two known terrorists, members of a terror cell responsible for transporting weapons and Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) throughout the region. The police quickly detained one of the wanted men, but the other escaped in his car. In yet a third operation, Bastogne Soldiers of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division provided overwatch while Iraqi police from the Emergency Services Unit (ESU), a special police unit, conducted a cordon and search of six separate houses, detaining four members of a sniper cell. All four are in police custody for further questioning. �Iraqi Security Forces in the Kirkuk Province have captured or killed more than 60 known terrorists in the past two weeks,� said Major Greg Bishop, spokesman for the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, stationed in Kirkuk. �More and more, we�re seeing local citizens come forward with information on the whereabouts of these insurgents.�