Coalition Forces Detain Nine in Search for Missing Soldiers

Coalition forces detained 11 people during operations yesterday, including nine suspected of involvement in the May 12 kidnapping of three U.S. soldiers.

Coalition forces continued to follow tips and information leads in the disappearance of three soldiers, raiding a building near Amiriyah yesterday morning, officials reported. During the raid, coalition forces detained nine suspects.

May 18 intelligence reports led coalition forces to a site in Baqubah, where they detained two people allegedly associated with the al Qaeda in Iraq command network.

In other operations yesterday morning, coalition forces discovered two weapons caches. One cache south of Baghdad contained weapons, magazines and assault vests, and another northeast of Habbiniyah housed eight rockets. The weapons were safely destroyed on site.

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We will not stop searching until we find our soldiers," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, Multinational Force Iraq spokesman. "We're using all available assets and continuing to assault the al Qaeda in Iraq network."