Good News from Iraq: 14 Jun 2007

From MNF-I, Iraqi Security Forces foil suicide car bomb attack.

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Security Forces prevented a suicide car bomb attack on a Coalition forces combat outpost in Khan Bani Sa’ad, located in the Diyala province, Tuesday.

U.S. Army Spc. Marquis Dawkins, an infantryman assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, surveys more than 120 five-gallon cans of nitric acid, a component used to make bombs, discovered at a bomb-making “factory” in Baghdad’s East Rashid District Monday. Every cache found by Iraqi troops and Coalition forces helps protect the population from future attacks. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Ben Washburn, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division Public Affairs.

Iraqi Army Soldiers received a tip and description of a potential suicide vehicle bomb and engaged the vehicle with small-arms fire as it approached the outpost. The vehicle detonated prematurely, before it could reach the outer perimeter. . . .

“The truly amazing thing is that the Iraqi Soldiers, who are mostly Shia, got the tip from local Sunnis, who had seen a suspicious vehicle driven by masked men traveling towards the outpost,” said Lt. Col. Marshall Dougherty, commander, 2nd squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. . . .