Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20080818-03
Aug. 18, 2008

ISF cracks down on terrorists and criminal elements throughout Iraq (Balad)
Multi-National Corps – Iraq

BALAD, Iraq – Iraqi Security Forces detained 14 suspected terrorists and criminals, and recovered a weapons cache in operations throughout Iraq Aug. 9-15.
 
During a patrol Aug. 15 in Rubiah, approximately 103 km southeast of Mosul, the 3rd Iraqi Army Division detained a suspected forger of passports and other documents.  IA confiscated several passports, fraudulent documents and forgery equipment believed to enable movement across the Iraqi and Syrian borders and throughout Iraq of foreign fighters and members of the Islamic State of Iraq, a front organization for al-Qaeda in Iraq.  Iraqi Special Operations Forces detained five suspected ISI cell members on a local warrant in Mosul Aug. 14. The men are believed to be part of a sleeper cell suspected of conducting improvised explosive device attacks against Iraqi and Coalition forces.
 
On Aug. 13 in Mosul, the 2nd Iraqi Army Division detained the suspected ISI leader of an IED cell operating in several neighborhoods throughout the area.

In another operation Aug. 13 in ad Dujayl, 60 km north of Baghdad, the 4th Iraqi Army Division detained a suspected criminal said to be the primary weapons cache facilitator for criminal element networks. 
 
On Aug. 11 in Baqubah, the 5th Iraqi Army Division detained the suspected leader and facilitator of a nationalist group reportedly established after AQI was driven out of the area. The group is allegedly responsible for rocket and IED attacks against Coalition forces.
 
In a separate operation Aug. 11, ISOF detained a suspected criminal in East Rashid whose cell reportedly uses IEDs to threaten the local populace working for the Iraqi government to quit their jobs. The cell is believed to have conducted IED attacks against a Coalition forces convoy in Tunis last year.
 
On Aug. 10, the Salah ad Din Special Weapons and Tactics team recovered a weapons cache in Tikrit containing mortar rounds and high explosives.
 
In Karmah Aug. 9, the 1st Iraqi Army Division and Fallujah SWAT detained four suspected key leaders of an AQI terrorist intelligence-gathering cell and three others.  The cell reportedly gathers information on local Iraqis and Iraqi Police working with Coalition forces to propagate fear.

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