Stryker Brigade News

IA, NP, local citizens combine efforts to seize munitions in Baghdad

Sep- 5-2008 » Filed Under: 2/25 SBCT

Multi-National Division – Baghdad

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Army and Iraqi National Police continue seizing weapons caches in Baghdad Sept. 3 and 4.

At approximately 5:30 p.m. Sept 3, police serving with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, discovered a cache buried in a garden in the al-Aamel neighborhood in the West Rashid district of Baghdad. The munitions included 256 pounds of manufactured explosives, three mortar rounds, an 82 mm mortar round and a 60 mm high explosive mortar round.

A local citizen provided a tip on the location of a cache northwest of Baghdad to Soldiers serving with Company C, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. The Soldiers passed the information to Iraqi soldiers serving with the 36th Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division, who went to the site and seized the weapons at approximately 2 p.m. Sept 4. The cache included three .50-caliber machine guns, a rocket-propelled grenade, four tripods, 30 DSHKA 12.7 mm rounds, three spare barrels, a 2.75-inch rocket tube with explosives and an 180 mm projectile. An MND-B Explosives Ordnance Detachment destroyed the weapons and munitions in a controlled detonation.

“Local citizens, along with Iraqi Army soldiers and the National Police, continue to make a difference in combining their efforts to take these dangerous weapons off the streets,” said Maj. Mark Cheadle, spokesman, MND-B and the 4th Infantry Division. “They are united in their efforts to provide safe neighborhoods for their families and friends.”