From MNF-I, Local residents lead Soldiers to huge weapons cache.
PATROL BASE INCHON — The rural areas south of Baghdad have long been a trouble spot for Coalition Forces. The fertile land was given by Saddam Hussein to Baath Party members and close friends, and the ties made it a hotbed of terrorism.Increasingly, however, residents are combating terror in their areas.
On July 23, a local Iraqi man came to Patrol Base Inchon, near the Euphrates River, staffed by Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., and elements of the 4th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division. He told troops that several other residents had chased a group of anti-Iraqi forces away from a weapons cache. He asked Soldiers to remove the weapons.
Several local residents guarded the cache and placed a fluorescent marking cloth to alert helicopters that they were not hostile.
Soldiers of Company D moved out to find the cache and were met on the road by some of the local residents, who guided them to the cache, which was next to a canal.
The cache contained 210 57mm rockets, 25 82mm rockets, eight 120mm mortars, a large rocket, and a bag of homemade explosives.
An explosive ordnance disposal team detonated the contents of the cache with a controlled explosion.
Although most rockets and mortars found in caches are not suitable for firing as intended, they are commonly used as improvised explosive devices.
“It’s a significant breakthrough in one of our most problematic areas,” said Maj. Kenny Mintz, 2nd BCT’s operations officer. “We have had a series of people turn in caches in the Qarghuli tribal area, which has historically been a source for supplies for IEDs and munitions for terrorist attacks.”
Mintz, a San Diego native, said he feels the change in residents’ behavior is due to a realization that al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations are not what they had bargained for.
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