Pakistan: Al-Qaeda Cell Smashed

Source Article HERE.

From 'AKI': A militant Al-Qaeda cell linked to Pakistan's top Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, and other jihadi organisations was targeted in a major raid by security forces in Karachi on Friday. Three key militants died during the raid on the cell, which was allegedly planning a campaign of destruction. Their targets are believed to have included the bureau of the country's intelligence services (ISI), NATO supply lines from two Karachi ports and anti-Taliban politicians.

The cell had direct links to Baitullah Mehsud and Qari Zafar, the alleged mastermind of the devastating bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel, which killed at least 53 people and injured 260 others in Islamabad last week. Security officials were reluctant to confirm it, but it is understood to have been the same cell that was behind the 18 October assassination attempt on former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto when she returned from exile. Bhutto was later killed in a second attack in December.

A key Al-Qaeda militant, Rahimullah, alias Ali Hasan (Photo), was arrested during Friday's raid, that was conducted by a joint team of Pakistani police and intelligence agencies on the outskirts of Karachi's Baldia Town, near the border of restive Balochistan province. While three militants died in the raid, Rahimullah was taken into custody. Sultan Umer, Siddiq Mehsud, cousin of Baitullah Mehsud, and Waseem Bengali are believed to be the men killed in the raid on Friday. All were members of Laskhar-i-Jhangvi, an Islamist terror group linked to Al-Qaeda.

Rahimullah, a Karachi-based ethnic Pashtun, has in the past been linked to Laskhar-i-Jhangvi and Harkat-i-Jehad-i-Islami, another jihadi group linked to Al-Qaeda and is alleged to have killed several high profile religious clerics. He was believed to have been involved in various incidents, including attacks on the US Consulate in Karachi which has been the target of several suicide attacks between 2002 and 2006. Security sources said while there was only a single cell that had been smashed in Friday's raid, Rahimullah’s arrest could help uncover the funding networks used by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda from the Middle East.

Police also found the body of Shaukat Afridi, a contractor who transported NATO supplies from Karachi to Afghanistan through tankers. He was abducted from Clifton Karachi in May 2008 and his captors were demanding 64,000 dollars ransom. He was believed to be killed in a cross fire between the police and militants. Inspector General Police of Sindh province Salauddin Babar Khattack declined to make any comment to Adnkronos International (AKI) concerning the militants' links with South Waziristan. “It is confirmed that they belong to Laskhar-i-Jhangvi but we cannot confirm or deny their links with South Waziristan,” Khattack told AKI by telephone.

Pakistani intelligence agencies have identified the southern port city of Karachi as the greatest potential terror target since the Marriott blast in Islamabad. Security agencies were on high alert on Friday outside the foreign missions in Karachi and around the strategic organisations like ISI which are heavily involved in anti-terror operations across the country and manned by mostly military officials.

UK: 3 Men Held Under Terror Act

Source Article HERE.

From 'BBC': Three men have been arrested in north London on suspicion of terrorism. The men, aged 40, 22 and 30 have been taken to Paddington Green police station where they remain in custody. They were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. It is thought that the men were suspected of attempting to set fire to a publishers in Islington, north London, the BBC understands. A small fire was put out at a property in Lonsdale Square.

Two of the men were stopped by armed officers and arrested in the street and the third was stopped in a car at 0225 GMT on Saturday. The men were arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command in a pre-planned, intelligence-led operation. Two men were arrested outside a property in Lonsdale Square, and the third following an armed vehicle stop near Angel Tube station on Upper Street. Police are searching four properties in Walthamstow, Ilford and Forest Gate.

Poll: Muslim Support For Bin Laden, Suicide Attacks Down

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From 'AFP': The number of Muslims around the world who say suicide attacks are acceptable has fallen sharply in the past six years, as has Muslims' confidence in Osama bin Laden, a survey by a US think-tank showed Thursday. But, the Pew Research Center warned in its Global Attitudes Project, significant minorities of Muslims in eight countries surveyed continue to endorse suicide bombings and support the Al-Qaeda leader.

In Lebanon, the number of Muslims who said suicide attacks can be justified often or sometimes in defense of Islam fell by 42 percent between 2002 to this year, the study showed. But although down sharply from 74 percent six years ago, one in three Muslims in Lebanon still backed suicide attacks. In Pakistan, support for suicide bombings has fallen by 28 percent to a scant five percent in the past six years. In Jordan, support has dropped 18 points since 2002, but a quarter of Jordanian Muslims still support suicide attacks.

Even though numbers have fallen by 15 percent in six years, around 10 percent in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, continue to support suicide attacks. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, where around half the population is Muslim, also saw a 15 percent drop in support, but that left nearly one-third still in support of the deadly tactic. Turkey and Tanzania saw drops in support for suicide bombings of 10 and six points respectively since 2002.

Support in Turkey, which has been rocked by several deadly attacks in recent years, was the lowest of any of the countries surveyed, with only three percent telling Pew pollsters in March and April that they back suicide bombings. In Egypt, support for suicide bombings rose by five percent between 2007 and 2008; Egyptians were not surveyed in 2002.

Large numbers of Muslims in the eight countries also said they had lost confidence in bin Laden to do the right thing in world affairs, although support for the Al-Qaeda leader remained high in some countries. That was the case in Nigeria in particular, where nearly six in 10 Muslims expressed confidence in bin Laden, around the same percentage as five years ago. Support for bin Laden fell from nearly six in 10 Muslims in Indonesia and nearly half in Pakistan in 2003, to a still sizeable but significantly lower number of around one-third today.

In contrast, only two percent of Lebanese Muslims expressed a lot or some confidence in bin Laden, down from 20 percent in 2003, and in Turkey, the percentage was three percent this year compared with 15 percent five years ago. The most dramatic drop in support for bin Laden was seen among Jordanian Muslims: whereas six in 10 of them expressed confidence in bin Laden just three years ago, only 19 percent did this year.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project is a series of worldwide public opinion surveys covering a broad array of subjects ranging from people's assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world.
More than 24,000 people in 24 countries were surveyed this year for the project, including just under 8,000 in the eight countries asked for their views on suicide bombings and bin Laden.

Muslims Reject Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden

Source Article HERE.

From 'Telegraph': In the wake of the Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad, which killed 60 people, it might seem perverse to express optimism about the struggle against global terrorism as espoused by al-Qaeda. After all, the Taliban, which provided asylum for Osama bin Laden's network before 9/11, is resurgent on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border. Indeed, the tribal areas nominally controlled by the government in Islamabad have succeeded Iraq as the epicentre of world jihadism.

Yet it is worth stepping back from last Saturday's carnage to look at the history of terrorism. This shows that all such movements come to an end, whether through divisions within the leadership, repression or co-option by the state or, most important, loss of trust among the people they claim to represent. In a paper for the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Audrey Kurth Cronin encourages Western nations to focus on the "plentiful weaknesses" of al-Qaeda and its associates. These she defines as "indiscriminate killing in the service of a largely fictitious narrative without a shred of hopeful vision".

Bin Laden has been weakened by allied military action in Afghanistan and tighter surveillance of international money transfers. More significant in the longer term is the criticism voiced within radical Islamic circles about the morality of what he is doing. This may seem a strange word to use in conjunction with an instigator of mass murder, but bin Laden set out with the self-proclaimed noble intention to defend the umma, or Muslim world, from Western encroachment.

Why, then, say his critics, do you condone the killing of Muslims in suicide bomb attacks? Bin Laden's former mentor, the Saudi scholar Salman al-Oudah, has deplored al-Qaeda's violence and suggested that its leader has allowed the means to become the ends. The jihadist ideologue Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, better known by his underground name of Dr Fadl, has described 9/11 as "a catastrophe for Muslims".

At this year's conference of Oxford Analytica, an international consultancy, one of the participants described al-Qaeda as "a profoundly moral project which contains the seeds of its own destruction because of its failure to live up to its own moral standards". Another thought it retained moral authority but had "little power in terms of organisation". The impression emerged of a movement with a puritanical, racist view of Islam which had proved a "very bad friend" to the Muslim world. This would explain its eclipse in Iraq in favour of Sunni-dominated militias and its limited success in the northern Caucasus.

Al-Qaeda's fortunes could revive should what the Muslim world might deem a further "outrage" be committed in the form of, say, an Israeli attack on Iran or of continued American ground incursions into the tribal areas. But beyond harping on a sense of victimhood, the network has little to offer the umma.

Compare, for example, its record with that of other radical organisations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Taking advantage of a fixed base, which al-Qaeda lacks, they have won popular support by providing welfare denied by an incompetent state. Bin Laden may be able to boast of spectacular assaults on his enemies, but he can hardly claim to have contributed to long-term social and economic development.

The erosion of support for al-Qaeda presents those whom it targets with interesting opportunities. Professor Cronin argues that the best counter-terrorist policies are "those consciously synergistic with a group's natural tendency to implode". She adds that a government's top priority should be "not to win people's hearts and minds, but rather to amplify the natural tendency of violent groups to lose them".

This might suggest that America and its allies should withdraw forthwith from Iraq and Afghanistan and watch al-Qaeda self-destruct. If only it were that simple. However, in the case of Pakistan, Washington should refrain from stoking resentment of the West by further unilateral incursions into the tribal areas, which merely strengthen the conviction that this is America's war. And a distinction should be made between the foreign jihadists, whose goal is global revolution, and the Taliban, who, like the Basque or Corsican separatists, are motivated by local factors. Driving a wedge between the two will in due course require negotiating with the Taliban.

The eclipse of al-Qaeda does not, of course, mean that it is no longer a threat - modern historical experience indicates that waves of international terrorist activity last about 40 years, so we have some way to go. Bin Laden could still stage a hideous attack, and, even if he doesn't, there are many other terrorist groups around the world, either affiliated to his network or fighting for different ends, that could.

Nevertheless, it is a hopeful sign that the man who would forcefully unite all Muslims in a new caliphate is proving subject to the same constraints as previous terrorist movements with more modest aims. Self-defence, despite its moral connotations, has in his hands turned out to be nihilistic. Opinion polls show that the Islamic world is turning against him. And it is there that his evil acts will finally be thwarted.

5 Iran-Backed Extremists Arrested In Iraq

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From 'AP': The U.S. military says it has arrested five Iranian-backed Shiite extremists accused in recent rocket attacks on Iraqi and American forces. The military says it captured the five suspects Saturday morning in three separate locations in a largely Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. A military statement says the extremists are suspected of links to the Hezbollah Brigades, a Shiite extremist group that the U.S. believes is backed by Iran. Tehran denies U.S. allegations that it is supporting violence in Iraq. The military says it acted on intelligence information in arresting the five. It says they were suspected of having links to recent rocket attacks on Iraqi security and U.S. forces.

Germany Pulls 2 Suspects From Plane

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From 'Washington Post': Two terrorism suspects who had left notes saying they were willing to die for "jihad" were pulled off a flight at the Cologne-Bonn airport Friday morning, moments before it was scheduled to depart, authorities said. The Somali-born men were planning to fly to Uganda via Amsterdam, then on to Pakistan, according to German media reports. An increasing number of Muslim radicals have left Germany to be trained at militant camps in Pakistan, where according to counterterrorism officials they are plotting attacks back in Europe.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors issued a public alert seeking information on the whereabouts of two other men believed to have returned to Germany after attending terrorist camps in Pakistan. Last week, police near Frankfurt arrested two more men who had gone to Pakistan for training and charged them with belonging to a cell that plotted to bomb U.S. targets in Germany last year.

Authorities identified the two men arrested Friday at the Cologne-Bonn airport as Abdirazak B., 23, a Somali national, and Omar D., 24, a German citizen born in Mogadishu. German authorities customarily withhold the surnames of suspects. The suspects had boarded KLM Flight 1804 for Amsterdam but were removed from the plane by police at 6:55 a.m. local time, just as it was preparing to pull away from its gate for departure, airport officials said. A KLM spokesman said all passengers were taken off the plane until police could locate luggage belonging to the suspects. Officials said that no weapons or explosives were found and that the flight was allowed to depart after an 80-minute delay.

Police officials said they moved to arrest the men after searching their apartments and finding notes suggesting they intended to carry out a suicide mission. "They are under suspicion of intending to participate in the jihad and in possible attacks," Frank Scheulen, a spokesman for police in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, told German television. "Farewell letters were written." The German newspaper Bild reported that the suspects had been under surveillance for months. Michaela Heyer, a North Rhine-Westphalia police spokeswoman, said the suspects had been living near Cologne, but she declined to comment further.

German counterterrorism officials have said the country faces a heightened risk of attack partly because of its continuing participation in the NATO-led military mission in Afghanistan. Germany announced in June that it would expand its role, adding 1,000 troops to the 3,500 already based there. German intelligence officials have said that they have identified about 25 suspected radicals who have gone to Pakistan for training but acknowledged that they don't know the full extent of the problem.

"We have to be careful not to say we have dozens and dozens and dozens of people in the camps," said Rolf Tophoven, an analyst with the Institute for Terrorism Research and Security Policy in Essen. "But one is all it takes to carry out an attack. These people are highly motivated, very professionally trained and are capable of killing many people."

On Thursday, federal prosecutors issued wanted posters and arrest warrants for Eric Breininger, 21, a German citizen and convert to Islam, and Houssain al-Malla, 23, a native of Lebanon. Officials said they had evidence that the men had returned to Europe after attending camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both men are suspected of involvement with a group called the Islamic Jihad Union, which was accused of planning attacks against U.S. targets in Germany a year ago.

Last week, German police arrested two other suspected members of that group. Omid Shirkhani, 27, a German citizen of Afghan descent, and Huseyin Ozgun, a 27-year-old Turkish national, were taken into custody Sept. 19 near Frankfurt. Federal prosecutors said Shirkhani and Ozgun had traveled separately to Pakistan during 2007 to receive training at camps operated by the Islamic Jihad Union, which is allied with al-Qaeda. Authorities said the two men may have been aware of plans by other accused members of the group to bomb U.S. targets in Germany a year ago, though they were not charged with playing a direct role.

Earlier this month, prosecutors filed an indictment against three suspected ringleaders of last year's plot and said the trio had discussed a number of possible bombing targets, including U.S. military bases in Germany. Those three defendants were arrested Sept. 4, 2007, in the rural village of Oberschledorn as they allegedly transferred bombmaking chemicals from a rented house. Police said they had stockpiled more than 1,500 pounds of chemicals to make explosives and had smuggled detonators from Turkey.

MNFI Press Release - Sept 27

IP, IA, COALITION SOLDIERS SEIZE WEAPONS CACHES
Iraqi Police (IP) and Muliti-National Soldiers seized weapons caches in the Baghdad area on September 26th. Soldiers serving with Company A, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, found a weapons cache in the Adhamiyah district of Baghdad at approximately 9 a.m. The munitions consisted of (9) AK-47 rifles, (6) grenades, (2) cans of blasting caps, (2) Iraqi Police uniforms, (10) digital cameras and a VHS camcorder.

At approximately 8:30 p.m., IP serving with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, found a cache in the West Rashid District of Baghdad. The munitions included (10) 60 mm mortar rounds, (6) Iranian-manufactured 81 mm mortar rounds, (9) 82 mm mortar rounds, (1) white phosphorous 82 mm mortar round, (1) 120 mm mortar round, (1) 100 mm high-explosive projectile, (13) 85 mm rounds, (2) Iranian-manufactured anti-tank rounds, (1) Iranian manufactured AT-1 PG-7, (8) expelling charges, (3) hand grenades, (1) mills bomb, propellant for the PG-7, (1) improvised grenade, (1) 6-inch long improvised-explosive device filled with approximately 1.5 pounds of explosives, (1) IED encased in foam consisting of (2) 82 mm mortar rounds, (1) 57 mm projectile and (1) bottle of homemade explosives.

With the help from a tip from a local citizen, Soldiers serving with Company C, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, found (6) 107 mm rounds in a canal northwest of Baghdad at approximately 9:15 p.m.

Approximately two hours later, northwest of Baghdad, IA soldiers serving with the 4th Battalion, 24th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, found what appeared to be (5) jugs of nitrogen and called for an assessment by EOD. An EOD team from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, identified the the materials as (4) five-gallon jugs of diesel fuel and (1) five gallon jug of sugar, which were likely to be used as a bomb inside a house.

“Through the combined efforts of Iraqi Policemen, Iraqi Soldiers, an Iraqi citizen, and Coalition Soldiers, a substantial amount of munitions were removed as potential threats by militants and extremists who continue to attempt to disrupt the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians,” said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, spokesman for Multi-National Division – Baghdad and the 4th Infantry Division. “The ISF and MND-B forces dedication to safeguarding local residents continues to pay huge dividends in helping secure the peace in Baghdad.”

COALITION FORCES DETAIN 12 SUSPECTED TERRORISTS
A dozen suspected terrorists were captured on Saturday as Coalition forces continued to cripple the ability of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) to conduct violent terrorist activities. During five coordinated operations in Mosul and nearby Al Qasr (about 15 km southeast of Mosul), forces zeroed in on AQI vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) networks Saturday. They were targeting a wanted man believed to have planned and executed multiple car bomb attacks against Iraqi citizens and Coalition forces. Five suspected terrorists assessed to be associates of the wanted man were captured during the raids.

Also on Saturday, Coalition forces detained two suspects during an operation 80 km southeast of Kirkuk, while targeting a wanted man who intelligence reports suggest is an AQI operative with various connections to AQI regional leaders. Additionally, the wanted man is allegedly involved in information gathering operations used to plan attacks against Iraqi security and Coalition forces in the area. Acting on tips from detainees already in custody, Coalition forces also targeted senior AQI leadership networks in Bayji on Saturday, approximately 160 km south of Mosul. Three suspects were apprehended during the operation. Coalition forces detained two suspected terrorists during a raid on Saturday 116 km northeast of Baghdad. The detainees are believed to be associated with regional AQI leaders in Northern Diyala.

COALITION CATCHES 5 KATA'IB HEZBOLLAH SUSPECTS
Coalition forces apprehended five members of the Kata'ib Hezbollah network on Saturday morning in new Baghdad. Acting on intelligence information, Coalition forces targeted suspected criminals linked to recent rocket attacks against Iraqi Security and Coalition forces. Kata'ib Hezbollah funnels weapons and materiel into Iraq from Iran, which is then used to conduct attacks against Iraqi Security and Coalition forces. Coalition members captured the five suspects in three separate locations without incident. Coalition forces have captured more than 30 Kata'ib Hezbollah criminals in the last two months. Kata'ib Hezbollah is assessed to be a proxy of Iran, and its members are believed to employ improvised rocket assisted mortars as well as explosively formed penetrators in civilian areas.

Al-Qaeda Commander Killed In US Strike

Source Article HERE.

From 'The News' (Pakistan): Three out of seven people killed in Wednesday's US drone attack on Baghar village of South Waziristan Agency included two Arabs, one of them a senior al-Qaeda commander, and one hailing from the Punjab. Sources close to the tribal militants said that the two Arabs were identified as Jiran, the al-Qaeda commander, and Sabri while the name of the militant commander from the Punjab could not be ascertained.

A senior militant commander, who wished not to be named, said all the three men were sitting in a vehicle parked in front of a mud-built house in Baghar village near Angoor Adda when two US drones fired four Hellfire missiles, killing them and four others staying in the house. He said Jiran was appointed as al-Qaeda's operational commander for a particular region in Afghanistan when another senior al-Qaeda commander Abu Imam died in fighting with the US forces near Bagram in Afghanistan three months ago.

"Jiran was a senior operational commander and was mostly living in the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He used to change his locations due to continuous surveillance by the US spy planes on the border villages," said the tribal militant commander. He suspected it was possible that some Afghan nomads might have spied on the militants living in Baghar village.

Despite repeated protests lodged by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani over non-stop US air strikes on Pakistani tribal villages, two American spy planes again entered South Waziristan on Thursday evening and were seen flying over the area till the filing of this report. Tribal sources from Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan, reported that two US drones entered there on Thursday evening and were seen flying over Wana, Azam Warsak, Dabkot, Birmal and other adjoining villages.

"Both the planes are continuously flying over Wana and adjoining villages which has again created panic among the tribesmen. Whenever two US planes come here, they definitely carry out strikes," said a local tribesman.

Computer Terror Teenager Jailed

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From BBC: The youngest person in Britain to have been convicted under the Terrorism Act has been sentenced to two years in a young offenders' institution. Hammaad Munshi, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was 16 when he was arrested in 2006. Police found a guide to making napalm on his computer. Now 18, he was convicted of making a record of information likely to be used for terrorist purposes. The Old Bailey judge said he had been influenced by "fanatical extremists". Judge Timothy Pontius said: "There is no doubt that you knew what you were doing." During his trial at Blackfriars Crown Court, the jury heard that Munshi had spent many hours viewing jihadist websites and had downloaded guides to making napalm, detonators and explosives.


Hammaad Munshi (left). Aabid Khan and Sultan Muhammad.

Munshi was convicted alongside two other men, Aabid Khan and Sultan Muhammad. Khan, 23, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was said to be a "key player" in radicalisation via the internet. He was accused by prosecutors of "inciting others to take part in [jihad] and arranging for himself and others to attend military training in Pakistan in preparation for going to fight and, inevitably, to kill". Munshi was said to have been recruited by Khan when he was just 15.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Parkinson from the West Yorkshire counter-terrorism unit told the BBC's Asian Network that all three were dangerous individuals who were not just curious about extremist material. "They'd gone out of their way to possess information about how to construct explosive devices, information about how to carry out acts of terrorism. They were pieces of information that had to be specifically sought out, and has therefore definitely stepped over that criminal threshold."

The trial heard that Munshi was desperate to go and fight and went by the online name of "fidadee", meaning a "person ready to sacrifice himself". He also had a discussion with Khan, via an internet messaging service, about how someone might smuggle a sword through airport security. Police said they found al-Qaeda propaganda on his computer and notes on martyrdom hidden under his bed. The teenager was cleared of possessing terrorist material, but the judge said the nature of what downloaded made it a "particularly serious offence". He told the boy...

You have brought very great shame upon yourself, your family and your religion. However, in the light of the evidence, I have no doubt at all that you, amongst other of similar immaturity and vulnerability, fell under the spell of fanatical extremists, and your co-defendant Aabid Khan in particular. They took advantage of your youthful naivety in order to indoctrinate you with pernicious and warped ideas masquerading as altruistic religious zeal. Were it not for Aabid Khan's malign influence, I doubt this offence would ever have been committed.

Khan was sentenced in August to 12 years for possessing or making documents promoting terrorism. His cousin Muhammad, 23, also from Bradford, was sentenced to 10 years for similar offences under the Terrorism Act.

MNFI Press Release - Sept 17

COALITION, IRAQIS COMPLETE OPERATION VIPER PURSUIT
Soldiers with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry teamed up with 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain’s VIPER Military Transition Team and elements of the Iraqi Army, conducted Operation Viper Pursuit to disrupt local terrorist cells within the Sulayman Bak area August 1-30. Operation Viper Pursuit combined air and ground assaults to cordon and search specific parts of local villages. Because of these combined efforts, more than 30 terrorists were detained during the month-long operation. “We really took them by surprise by establishing an extended presence in Sulyman Bak, that’s something we’ve never tried before,” said Spc. Sean Bizarres, a radio telephone operator with Headquarters Platoon, Bravo Company.

The joint effort has helped in paving a way for the ISF to eventually take over operations in the area. Bravo Company has worked especially close with the Iraqi 4th Division, Quick Reaction Force, by conducting numerous joint operations in the area ranging from cache searches, cordon and searches of urban areas, to air assaults and raids. “They are the best group of Iraqi soldiers I’ve worked with during my two deployments to Iraq,” said Sgt. Jeremy Walker, a squad leader in 3rd Platoon, Bravo Co. During the operation, Viper MiTT and Bravo Co., also conducted a reconciliation screening, which allowed local Iraqis an opportunity to clear their name of being involved with insurgent activity. At the conclusion of Operation Viper Pursuit, the Provincial Governor, Hamad Hammoud Shekti, visited the town to meet with local leaders and members as well as several sites in the town to demonstrate the strength of the security in Sulyman Bak. Though his visit was brief, it represented the dawn of a new opportunity for Sulyman Bak as Iraqi government officials demonstrated their care for the residents and progress of the village.


MULTI-NATIONAL SOLDIERS FIND ORDINANCE, DETAIN 4
Multi-National Soldiers found unexploded ordnance and detained four Special Groups criminals in Baghdad’s Rashid district on September 13-14. At approximately 8:15 p.m., on September 13th, Soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, found an 82 mm mortar round in the Jihad community. An explosives ordnance disposal unit took the mortar round to a forward operating base for analysis and destruction. At approximately 10 p.m. on September 13th, Soldiers from Company C also detained a Special Groups criminal allegedly responsible for recent sectarian attacks in the Jihad and Furat communities.

At approximately 12:30 a.m. on September 14th, Soldiers from Troop A, 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st BCT, 4th ID, detained a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq associate in the Hadar community. Approximately 20 minutes later, National Policemen from the 3rd Battalion, 7th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi National Police Division, detained two suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq members in the Masafee community. “The 1st “Raider” Brigade continues to pursue criminals in the Rashid district, working shoulder-to-shoulder with their counterparts, the Iraqi Security Forces, to keep the people of the Rashid district safe and provide the Government of Iraq the freedom to operate,” said Lt. Col. Paul Hossenlopp, deputy commander, 1st BCT, 4th Inf. Div. “With the cooperation of Iraqi citizens, our Soldiers can rid the streets of criminals and violence.”

MNFI Press Release - Sept 14

OPS DEGRADE AL-QAEDA ATTACK CAPABILITIES
Coalition forces captured three wanted men and detained five additional suspects during operations in central and northern Iraq targeting al-Qaeda (AQI) operations and attack cells on Saturday and Sunday. Two precision operations in the Baghdad area Sunday netted suspects wanted for their alleged roles in AQI attacks. A man captured in the city is reportedly a bombing-cell leader who procures explosives for attacks and helps foreign terrorists move into and around Baghdad. West of Abu Ghraib, Coalition forces captured a suspected weapons dealer. Intelligence reports indicate the man was conspiring with known terrorists to coordinate a suicide operation.

On Saturday, Coalition forces west of Kirkuk captured a wanted man believed to provide explosives to terrorist cells. The wanted man, who was detained with three associates, is also reportedly involved in propaganda production and distribution for AQI in the Kirkuk area. Also on Saturday, Coalition forces detained two suspected terrorists northwest of Mosul during an operation targeting associates of AQI senior leaders.

INP, MND-B SOLDIERS SEIZE WEAPONS CACHES IN BAGHDAD
Iraqi National Police (INP) and MultiNational Division–Baghdad Soldiers seized weapons caches throughout Baghdad on Saturday, September 13th. At approximately 8 a.m., policemen with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Brigade, 2nd National Police Division, seized (18) grenades, (10) AK47s, (15) AK47 magazines with ammunition, and more than 1,700 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition and eight load-bearing vests in the New Baghdad area of Baghdad. Later, at approximately noon, a local citizen turned in a 60 mm mortar round and a rocket-propelled grenade round to Soldiers from Company A, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, who were conducting a dismounted patrol in the New Baghdad area of Baghdad. "The Iraqi Police, along with local citizens, continue to make a difference every day as they continue to remove these weapons from the streets of Baghdad," said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, spokesman, MND-B and the 4th Inf. Div.

IA, MND-B SOLDIERS DETAIN SUSPECTED SPECIAL GROUPS LEADER
Iraqi Amry (IA) and MultiNational Division-Baghdad (MND-B) Soldiers detained a suspected Special Groups leader in Baghdad’s Rashid district on September 12th. At approximately 10:20 a.m., soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 53rd Brigade, 14th Iraqi Army Division, and Soldiers from Company A, 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, MND-B arrested a suspected Special Groups leader in the Jihad community. The suspect is responsible for an attack on Baghdad International Airport, on July 10th. "Coalition forces continue to pursue criminals in the Rashid district," said Lt. Col. Paul Hossenlopp, deputy commander, 1st BCT, 4th ID, MND-B.

U.S. Hands Back Security Of Anbar Province

Source Article HERE.

From 'International Herald Tribune': The U.S. military on Monday handed over to the Iraqi government responsibility for the security of the western province of Anbar, once a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency and one of the most violent regions in Iraq. The transfer was made possible, Iraqi and U.S. officials said, by an increase in Iraqi security forces and a reduction of violence largely attributed to the local forces known as Awakening Councils. It is the first handover of a province bordering Baghdad. Other provinces that have been shifted to Iraqi control have been in the less troublesome south and in the northern Kurdish region.


Iraqi security forces at Anbar handover ceremony in Ramadi - Sept. 1

The transfer ceremony took place in the center of Ramadi, which two years ago was destroyed by almost daily battles between the U.S. military and insurgents. Now, Ramadi has largely been rebuilt, and the number of deaths of American soldiers has fallen to near zero. "You have lost a lot of blood and life to reach this day," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser, on Monday. "This would have been a dream two or three years ago. This was the cradle of Al Qaeda."

President George W. Bush hailed the handover in a statement released by the White House, praising "the courage of our troops, the Iraqi Security Forces, and the brave tribes and other civilians from Anbar who worked alongside them." The United States military has reduced the number of its troops in Anbar to 25,000 from 37,000 in February and the Iraqi police force has grown to 28,000, up from 5,000 three years ago, according to the U.S. Marine Corps. American forces were originally scheduled to transfer control in late June, but the transfer was postponed. At the time, U.S. military officials said that a dust storm had made it impossible to fly dignitaries in for a ceremony.