2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Public Affairs Office
Multi-National Division-Center
AL-OWESAT, Iraq — A group of concerned citizens found a weapons cache along the Euphrates River Aug. 12 and later brought it to coalition forces.
Soldiers of Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., were at Iraqi army Patrol Base Samir, near the Iraqi village of al-Taqa, when a group of local citizens brought the cache to them.
The cache contained 220 pounds of homemade explosives, seven 155 mm rounds, seven 120 mm rounds, 12 14.5 mm heavy machine-gun rounds, two steel-pipe directional charges packed with homemade explosive, 60 57mm mortar fuses, one 82 mm mortar tube, three homemade hand grenades, nine rocket-propelled grenades, two 88 mm rocket fuses and 400 meters (approx. 1,300 feet) of detonation cord.
The weapons turn-in occurred within a mile of the site where Spc. Alex R. Jimenez and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty were captured on May 12. Search efforts continue for the missing Soldiers.
The cache was secured for disposal by an explosive ordnance disposal team.