From MNF-I, Tipsters lead to capture south Baghdad’s most wanted terrorist, cache.
AL-DHOUR, Iraq — With two well-timed phone calls, Iraqi civilians made some Soldiers’ day July 9.
The first tipster called Troop C, 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., and alerted them to a cache south of the village of Al-Dhour, Iraq, south of Baghdad.
The troop responded, located the buried weapons, and was only five minutes into the process of digging them up when they got another call.
A man claimed he had the 2nd BCT’s top high-value target and would deliver him to coalition custody. The man and Capt. Adam Sawyer, Troop C commander, agreed on a pickup site.
The Soldiers hastily re-buried the cache and moved out, and when the vehicle arrived, they stopped it and took the most wanted man and two other men into custody.
Some of the Soldiers were still able to see the cache from their vantage point - and were surprised to see a civilian pickup truck stop there and begin hastily loading the weapons into the bed of the truck.
They engaged the vehicle with an M-240 machine gun, and the men tried to flee, but the Troop C Soldiers detained them all – and called an explosive ordnance disposal team to destroy the weapons.
Sawyer a native of Reading, Penn., was jubilant about the operation.
“All of this was possible because of sources we’ve developed, through local-national engagements and working with the residents of the area,” he said. “It’s our work with the people in these areas, our relations with them, paying off.”
The primary target is allegedly responsible for shooting down an AH-64 helicopter in April 2006, the abductions of two Soldiers in June 2006, and complex attacks on patrol bases and terrorist acts against both Coalition Forces and Iraqi civilians.
Additionally, he is believed to be the leader of an al Qaeda network, known to prey on the general public through intimidation and murder against those resisting compliance to the AQI demands and decrees
One of the detainees had been wounded in a previous engagement, and was taken to a coalition hospital for treatment. The other six are being held for further questioning.
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