Kidnapping Victims Rescued During Vehicle Search

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2005 - Task Force Baghdad soldiers rescued two kidnapping victims during a routine vehicle search at a checkpoint in western Baghdad on Dec. 1, military officials in Iraq said today.

Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, found two Iraqi civilians bound and gagged in the trunk of a white sedan. The two individuals, employed by an American contractor, claimed they had been taken hostage and were to be murdered.

The car's driver and a passenger had false Iraqi police badges and were carrying pistols. They were detained.
In the north-central region of Iraq, Iraqi and U.S. forces detained 18 terrorists on Dec. 1.

Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team apprehended two terrorists near Daquq. The terrorists were attempting to emplace an improvised explosive device that detonated, injuring both men. They were taken to a local hospital, where one later died of his wounds.

The soldiers searched the terrorists' vehicle and found a second IED, which an explosives team detonated.

Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade of the Iraqi army's 5th Division conducted a search of the Dali Abbas market near Muqdadiyah to eliminate an IED cell operating in the area. Their search yielded 10 suspects detained.

Another detachment from the same Iraqi army unit detained two men in a raid near Baqubah. The suspected terrorists were taken for questioning.

Task Force 5-7 Cavalry troopers detained four terrorists near Balad after catching them with IED-detonating devices.
North of Baghdad, soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, discovered a sizable weapons cache while performing combat operations Dec. 1.

Soldiers of 4th Battalion, 1st Field Artillery Regiment, were conducting a cordon-and-search operation when they found the cache. The Task Force Baghdad troops unearthed five rocket-propelled-grenade launchers and ammunition. They also found 22 mortar rounds, eight artillery shells ranging in size from 60 mm to 16 mm, seven rockets of varying sizes, a wire-guided antitank missile, 200 rounds of machine-gun ammunition and various bomb-making components.

The soldiers secured the munitions and a military explosives team destroyed them on site.

(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq and Task Force Baghdad news releases.)

Related Site:

Multinational Force Iraq [http://www.mnf-iraq.com/]

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