Two Insurgents Killed, Eight Captured; Weapons Cache Found, Destroyed

Two insurgents were killed and eight
captured April 1 after 101st Airborne Division soldiers spotted terrorists
planting a homemade bomb near a road the soldiers frequently travel,
military officials said today.

The soldiers initially spotted eight men exit a suspicious truck
stopped alongside the road. The men quickly dropped several artillery rounds
before driving to a nearby village, where about 10 more men gathered
around the truck. Within minutes, the truck drove off, and four
insurgents started walking toward the makeshift bomb.

Splitting into two teams, two team members positioned themselves off
the road where they could observe traffic and the bomb. Meanwhile, the
other team began laying wire through a field to the artillery rounds and
then completed building the pressure-switch bomb. The second group then
found a place from which they too could watch the explosion.

OH-58 Kiowa helicopter pilots from the 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry
Regiment, engaged two of the insurgents with machine gun and rocket fire
after being called in by leaders of 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry
Regiment. The pilots were unable to spot the other two insurgents hiding in the
field, so the 1st Battalion leaders ordered their men to fire 120 mm
artillery rounds at the targets. Upon impact of the artillery rounds, one
of the suspects began moving back to the village.
Soldiers searched 10 different structures, detaining eight suspected
insurgents for questioning during a cordon-and-search operation. Three of
the detainees tested positive for having contact with explosive
residue.

Meanwhile, another element from the 1st Battalion secured the bomb site
until the explosive ordnance disposal unit could arrive. While an
explosive ordnance disposal team examined the bomb, 1st Battalion soldiers
searched the field, confirming that two of the terrorists had been
killed.

The EOD unit disposed of the device with an on-site controlled blast.

In other news from Iraq, Iraqi soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 1st
Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Division, and U.S. soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 16th
Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry
Division, found a large weapons cache in southern Babil province March 30. The
cache consisted of 99 rocket-propelled-grenade launchers. An explosive
ordnance disposal team disposed of the weapons.