Good News from Iraq: 7 Oct 2007

From MNF-I, Iraqi Soldiers discover weapons caches.

MOSUL — Iraqi soldiers discovered two weapons caches in Nineveh province after following a trail of evidence they obtained from an earlier gun battle with enemy fighters.

“This is a good example of the Iraqi army soldiers taking immediate action when they noticed individuals with weapons and acting suspiciously,” said U.S. Army Maj. Roderick Cunningham, spokesperson for the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. “They suppressed the threat, followed the evidence, and were able to remove several heavy weapons and explosives from the streets of Mosul before they were used by the enemy to injure and kill Iraqis or Coalition Forces.”

During a cordon and search operation in the Al Magrab neighborhood of west Mosul on Oct. 1, 2007, Iraqi army soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division, engaged two enemy fighters who were unloading a car with multiple weapons in the trunk.

Wounding one of the enemy fighters, they followed the trail of blood to a site containing six cans of PKC machine gun ammunition, five 105mm tank rounds, two mortar rounds, one pipe bomb and one large propane-tank sized improvised explosive device.

Further investigation of the vehicle at the original site revealed two AK-47 assault rifles with four magazines, a PKC machine gun with extra belts of ammunition and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher with two booster rockets.

An Iraqi army bomb disposal company responded to the scene and removed the explosives; no Iraqi soldiers were injured during the engagement.