FOB QAYYARAH-WEST, Iraq — Ninety-four suspected insurgents were detained and at least three killed Wednesday in a firefight that ensued after U.S. and Iraqi soldiers descended on the town of Aitha in the pre-dawn hours.
Of the 94 detainees, at least five are considered to be mid- to high-level targets sought by coalition forces as possible terrorists, said Maj. Kevin Murphy, operations officer of 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.
One Iraqi soldier from the 102nd Iraqi Army Battalion, which led the offensive, was killed, and two U.S. soldiers were severely wounded, Murphy said. One of the U.S. soldiers had been shot in the head; the other was wounded in the abdomen.
Apache helicopters “leveled” the two buildings from which insurgents shot at the Iraqi and U.S. forces, he said.
Aitha, about an hour south of the northern city of Mosul, “is known as a town that harbors terrorists,” said Capt. Mike Yea, the fire support officer. “It has a decent number of people [a population about 2,000], so terrorists can hide and blend in. And it’s close to a major highway” which insurgents use to traffic weapons and people between Mosul and Baghdad, he said.
About 5 a.m., 2/8’s Battery B cordoned off the town to prevent anyone from entering and leaving, as the 102nd IA Battalion, accompanied by U.S. Special Forces, took the lead in rounding up suspects and searching homes, Murphy said.
By 2 p.m., the forces had searched and cleared all of the town’s estimated 55 homes, Yea said. No weapons caches were found in what was dubbed Operation Fruit Brute, a reference to a short-lived General Mills cereal.
Brig. Gen. Ali Atala Malowh, commander of the 102nd battalion, announced via a loudspeaker that all military-aged men were to gather at a collection site in town. Sources working with the Iraqi troops then identified suspected insurgents. All of the men who gathered were fingerprinted and checked against a list of wanted men, officials said.
It was the first time that the Iraqi battalion planned and executed such a mission, “and they performed absolutely superbly,” Murphy said.
