GOOD NEWS FRIDAY

Freedom Facts ::
Completed Gulf Region Division water treatment projects have provided the capacity to serve an additional 2.2 million Iraqis with potable water. At the end of the program, the added capacity could serve approximately 5.2 million Iraqis with potable water.

Iraqis lead Soldiers to weapons caches north of Baghdad
1st Brigade Combat Team
1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs

CAMP TAJI — Concerned Iraqi citizens recently fed tips to Soldiers from the 1st “Ironhorse” Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 1st Cavalry Division, which led to four weapons caches and two detained suspects during multiple operations north of Baghdad.

Troops from Battery B, 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment, attached to the 1st BCT, acting on a tip from a neighborhood watch volunteer, recently uncovered an improvised explosive device (IED) cache near the town of Sab Al Bor.

The cache included five complete IEDs and 12 incomplete IEDs. Also found were 20 munitions of varying sizes, 100 pounds of homemade explosive, one can of nitric acid, some command wire and the tools necessary to manufacture IEDs.

Acting on another tip, Soldiers of Company D, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, also of 1st BCT, found a 100 mm projectile, ten 80 mm mortars, six IED timers, two rocket-propelled grenades and an accompanying booster. (read more)

Concerned citizens hand over weapons cache to coalition forces
2nd Brigade Combat Team
10th Mountain Division Public Affairs Office

AL-OWESAT— A group of concerned citizens recently found a weapons cache along the Euphrates River and later brought it to coalition forces.

Soldiers of Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., were at Iraqi Army Patrol Base Samir, near the village of al-Taqa, when a group of local citizens brought the cache to them.

The cache contained 220 pounds of homemade explosives, seven 155 mm rounds, seven 120 mm rounds, 12 14.5 mm heavy machine-gun rounds, two steel-pipe directional charges packed with homemade explosive, 60 57mm mortar fuses, one 82 mm mortar tube, three homemade hand grenades, nine rocket-propelled grenades, two 88 mm rocket fuses and nearly 1,300 feet of detonation cord.

The weapons turn-in occurred within a mile of the site where Spc. Alex R. Jimenez and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty were captured on May 12. Search efforts continue for the missing Soldiers.

The cache was secured for disposal by an explosive ordnance disposal.