Courtesy Photo | Sgt. Socheat Boun, a Portland, Ore., native, conducts tactical questioning of a...... read more read more
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By 2nd Lt. Jack Pinny
4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Public Affairs Office
FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq – In an ongoing effort to disrupt extremist improvised-explosive cell activity in the volatile Tisa Nisan district of Baghdad, Soldiers from 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, conducted an early morning raid with Iraqi national policemen June 16.
Acting on an informant tip, the Soldiers of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, and their NP partners quickly developed a plan that led to the capture of two men allegedly connected with several improvised-explosive device bombings in the area and seized a large amount of counterfeit money.
The operation called for Co. C's 1st and 3rd Platoons to raid homes of suspected financiers while their special Iraqi security forces' platoon, "Team ISF," searched the home of a militant allegedly known to emplace IEDs, explained Staff Sgt. Stewart Sword, Team ISF platoon sergeant, who hails from Virginia Beach, Va.
Team ISF is an infantry platoon trained and specialized in working with ISF partners – mainly national police, said Sword, adding that it is important to train and develop ISF units to take the lead in counterinsurgency. In fact, the philosophy is incorporated in all of their combined operations.
"We use NPs in front and try to just over watch them," he said.
For the June 16 operation, Team ISF took a squad of national policemen to the objective in an attempt to capture the IED emplacing suspect.
"We went up to the house (and) the NPs jumped over the front gate, rather stealthily, and unlocked it," described Sword. The NPs mechanically breached the door and entered along with a small contingent of MND-B Soldiers, he explained.
Staff Sgt. Mario Garcia, who hails from Ecuador, South America, was one of the first U.S. Soldiers to enter the door.
"I went in and looked to the left while everyone else went right," said Garcia. "He (the suspect) was standing in another room and started to run. As I shined my light on him, he was sliding his phone under a cabinet."
Then the extremist kneeled and put his hands on his head, explained Garcia. A little later, investigators found a video of an IED attack on a coalition forces vehicle saved in the phone, which had a programmed ringtone of a song with the repeated lyric "Thank God for the EFP," stated Garcia.
In the second targeted house, 1st Platoon Soldiers searched for an extremist responsible for allegedly financing EFP emplacement and construction. A thorough search of the dwelling revealed nothing, and Soldiers separated the men from the rest of the occupants while waiting for positive identification of the criminals, explained Garcia. When the informant arrived, he identified one of the three men as the target. After positive identification of the suspect, he was taken to a national police station for further questioning and transport.
The 3rd Platoon was responsible for searching another house. While conducting an initial search, the platoon did not find the target it was looking for, so the Soldiers continued to search for criminal evidence, according to Staff Sgt. Ben Hallford, a Greenville, S.C., native, and squad leader tasked with clearing the second floor.
At first, the search revealed nothing of note. When they began to withdraw to the first floor, Hallford noticed something interesting.
"In the hallway at the top of the stairs, there was a large bureau with the doors facing the wall. There were 10 to15 rugs rolled up against it," described Hallford. "It took me about five minutes to move the bureau to where I could open the door a little."
Hallford looked inside and did not see anything that looked suspicious, just some old car parts and a burlap bag, he said. He was about to forego the rest of the search when he had a second thought.
"I figured why not. I'm going to regret not looking in there," said Hallford.
The bag held a stash of Iraqi Dinar. Investigators counted the money and assessed it as 3.4 million dinars worth of counterfeit currency, most likely used to finance the criminal cell's operations, according to intelligence reports.
| Date Taken: | 06.29.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 06.29.2008 12:39 |
| Story ID: | 20985 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 176 |
| Downloads: | 61 |
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