Force raids suspected IED maker in Tikrit

[unhappycamper]

Command Sgt. Major Kevin Engel, left, and Sgt. 1st Class Paul Morris, Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, count and record cash collected during an early-morning raid on a suspected IED-making cell outside of Tikrit, Iraq, on March 26. The evidence, as well as several casualties, were brought back to Contingency Operating Base Speicher


Force raids suspected IED maker in Tikrit
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Mar 27, 2008 6:14:33 EDT

TIKRIT, Iraq — A raiding team hit a suspected vehicle-borne IED maker here early Wednesday, killing the main suspect but suffering several wounded and one killed, according to initial reports and accounts by soldiers sent in as a reaction force. Several civilians and a military working dog also were killed.

A military spokesman identified the raiders only as a “coalition force,” without providing their country or branch of service.

Acting on information that a Baghdad-based VBIED-maker had moved into Tikrit, the force descended on a house in a neighborhood adjoining Tikrit after midnight. After summoning the occupants by loudspeaker and getting no answer, forces blew the door off the target house, summoned again and began taking small-arms fire and grenades after entering the house, according to reports. Several troops were wounded in the initial exchange, and a fixed-wing gunship was called in, destroying the house.

The force began taking fire from other nearby houses, sparking a three-hour firefight. One in the raiding team and a military dog were killed. Four other troops in the team were wounded. According to reports, the main suspect and three other males were killed, as well as three women and a child. Five children, two other males and three women were wounded and are being treated at U.S. military hospitals.

One of wounded women is reported to be a relative of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/army_tikrit_raid_032608/