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February 06, 2007
Largest Cache Found in Commando Brigade History
Iraqi troops, Mountain Soldiers find largest cache in Commando Brigade history, more than 1100 mortar rounds
By 2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div.
Troops from 3rd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division and Troop B, 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment “Wolverines,” 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), made the discovery during Operation Wolverine Alesia near Yusufiyah, Iraq, just 10 miles southwest of the capital. 1,129
Acting on a tip from a local resident, the troops conducted an intentional search of the area which resulted in the largest cache find in 2nd “Commando” Brigade’s history. In all, 1,129 mortar rounds were uncovered.
The cache, which was buried in the dirt, was larger than expected. As the Soldiers continued to unearth more mortar rounds, it became evident that this was a major find.
“These mortars rounds are in the configuration to use as improvised explosive devises,” said Lt. Col. Mark Suich, the 1-89th’s commander and native of Redding, Pa. “The mortar rounds in this state cannot be used for indirect fire; they are fabricated and stored to be used against the coalition and sectarian enemies as IEDs.”
Suich said the seizure of so many munitions can only hurt terrorist operations.“We put a significant reduction in the enemy’s ability to emplace IEDs in this area today,” Suich said. “We are pretty sure that these are affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq.”
The area around Yusufiyah has long been identified as an al-Qaeda and former regime safe haven where attacks against Baghdad and coalition and Iraqi security forces originated.
“This is what we refer to as a weapons supermarket-type cache,” said Maj. Mark Aitken, the 1-89th executive officer and a naturalized U.S. citizen from Leicester, England. “The terrorists place a large cache of weapons in one place to draw from. They then pre-position what they draw in many other smaller caches around the countryside.”
During the operation four individuals were detained by the Iraqi Army for suspicious activity in the vicinity of the cache.
At a second cache site located nearby, Troop C, 1-89th found 20 120mm mortar rounds, 26 81mm mortar rounds, four medium machine guns, 8,000 rounds of machine gun ammunition, three rifle scopes, 60 fragmentation hand grenades, 50 pounds of homemade explosives, 27 boxes of 5.56mm rifle ammunition and 10 rocket-propelled grenade projectiles.
Operation Wolverine Alesia is named after a Roman battle led by Julius Caesar against the Gauls in 52 B.C., where the conquering force surrounded the enemy at the fortifications of Alesia in modern-day eastern France and defeated the defenders through siege warfare. The battle of Alesia marked the turning point in the Gallic Wars.
“Today we took over 1,100 IEDs off of the streets of Baghdad,” said Maj. Web Wright, spokesman for the Commando Brigade and a native of Annapolis, Md. “Not only did we take these weapons off of the streets, 3-4-6 IA is fully integrated into this operation. Last night, they found three caches and were actively involved in finding these two.”
The mortar rounds were destroyed during a controlled detonation by the explosive ordnance disposal detachment at approximately 2:35 p.m. The blast could be heard for more than 20 miles.
Posted by Wild Thing at February 6, 2007 12:55 AM
Comments
Gee--I thought they weren't suppose to have these things.
Couldn't those be thought of as WMD's?
A couple of those could do an awful lot of damage to buildings, infrastructure and people.
I'm beginning to think that the dummycrats choose not to believe how much in danger we really are and try to "sugarcoat" everything--that President Handjob of Iran is really a nice guy and Iraq isn't full of itself!
President Handjob (I'm sorry--I can't spell his name, let alone pronounce it) claims Feb 11 is the day Iran will declare it's nuclear ambitions. Wonder what he's got planned up his sleeve? Little weasel.
I guess he didn't get enough spankings from dad while he was growing up and now he's throwing the world's biggest temper tantrum.
Posted by: Lynn at February 6, 2007 05:31 AM
Yusafiyah was where the two guys from the 101st were station, captured and tortured to death. If you ask me, we ought to detonate this stuff where we found it. Screw the natives. You can't convince me they didn't know it was there.
Posted by: Rhod at February 6, 2007 07:43 AM
Did anybody happen to catch this on the news? I didn't hear a peep on any major news station, including Fox. It took place mid-January 2007
U.S. soldiers were slain after capture
BAGHDAD, Iraq | Four of the five U.S. soldiers killed in a sophisticated attack last week were shot after they were captured, handcuffed and driven miles away, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Friday...But hours after an Associated Press report cited unnamed U.S. and Iraqi sources in recounting the attack and killings, the military Friday issued a detailed statement. It said the four soldiers were found dead or dying near abandoned vehicles in Babel province, south of Baghdad.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/front/16557833.htm
Posted by: BobF at February 6, 2007 09:15 AM
Thats a lot of ammo. Before anyone gets too worked up though, its still only conventional weaponry - no WMDs.
Iran isn't ready to declare its nuclear ambitions yet - it would be suicidal. They are still using the nuclear-power cover story, and probably will do so until they have their first few bombs ready.
Posted by: Suricou Raven at February 6, 2007 10:51 AM
Great find, weapons that won't be used against our troops or civilians by those wonderful ragheads so loved and admired by the left. What a relationship.
Much like the love shared between a frog and a 4 year old... depending on the mood, either a deep personal relationship is shared or a fire cracker is shoved up its ass... Ya never know...
Posted by: Jack at February 6, 2007 11:49 AM
Suricou:
Just what does you first sentence mean? Worked up? WMD's? What's the connection? If you had to face these things in the field, you'd be "worked up". And what does Iran have to do with any of this?
You're an opponent of the war. It must bother you when we find "conventional weaponry".
Posted by: Rhod at February 6, 2007 01:29 PM
BobF - I heard a lot about the attack on those 5 US soldiers, but all the items were on the Internet. I have to admit that i don't read newspapers anymore, and I sometimes miss tv news for several days.
It seems the attackers were probably Iranian, from a special ops unit, and they had planned this attack for a long time, and well.
I hope our Special Forces are being used to interdict Iranians crossing the border.
Posted by: TomR at February 6, 2007 02:29 PM
Lynn,thank you, I had forgotten about that Feb. 11th thing. Your right he sure is a weasel.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 6, 2007 03:47 PM
Rhod I agree there is no way I would ever believe that did not know it was there.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 6, 2007 03:48 PM
Bob, oh my gosh how horrible! I never read that before or knew about it. Thank you for the link.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 6, 2007 03:50 PM
Suricou.....huh?
Well if I was over there and part of the platoon that found these weapons I would celebrate big time. Celebrate LIFE, and no one was killed or injured finding them.
I can't imagine being in a place where every move I made could be my last with all those IED's around and what you call conventional weaponry.
Our guys have to think twice about petting a dog in the street because it might have an IED attached to it, or a bike left along a wall some place our out in the road.
Yes this is a tremendous accompolishment Suricou. And alot of work was put in to finding it too.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 6, 2007 04:00 PM
Jack good example.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 6, 2007 04:01 PM
That's a lot of artillery. And a lot of lives not going to be destroyed or mangled.
Posted by: raz0r at February 6, 2007 06:02 PM
razOr your right, many lives will be saved because of finding these weapons.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 7, 2007 03:38 AM
