Some of the explosives and weapons discovered by members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team during Operation Tiger. Members of the brigade captured more than two tons of explosives, weapons and improvised explosive device making material during the operation, officials said. (Courtesy of U.S. Army)
YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — With most eyes focused on the long-awaited U.S. assault on Fallujah, 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldiers are touting the success of recent missions to seize weapons and ammunition in nearby Ramadi.
What role the 2nd Brigade is playing in the new offensives remains unclear, but U.S. commanders have said Army troops have surrounded and sealed off Ramadi, the city in which most 2nd Brigade missions have taken place.
Ramadi is considered a haven for many of the fighters who have made Fallujah synonymous with the months-long insurgency roiling Iraq.
2nd Brigade soldiers have spent the better part of four months conducting patrols, making raids and trying to build ties with local residents in Ramadi and outlying areas.
In a news release e-mailed to Stars and Stripes this week from Iraq, brigade officials said large quantities of bomb-making materials were seized in a brigade-level sweep dubbed Operation Tiger. In one instance, 2nd Brigade troops discovered and defused a booby-trapped youth center.
“This is what the terrorists and insurgents are doing to their own people,” Col. Gary S. Patton, 2nd Brigade commander, stated in the release. “We saved dozens of children’s lives. We did this by several brave soldiers entering the youth center at great personal risk to themselves to defuse the explosives.”
According to the release, the explosives were found by members of the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment in Ramadi.
“The unit reported the youth center was booby trapped and triple-wired, meaning there were three ways in which the explosives could detonate, so even if one of the rigs was discovered, backup triggers could still detonate the explosives,” the release read.
The detonators, said Capt. Charles Romero, were set to trigger when the lights were turned on, by remote control or by wiring that ran from the center to a firing mechanism in a nearby mosque.
“Our soldiers are really pumped about this mission,” Lt. Col. Justin Gubler, 1st of the 503rd commander, was quoted as saying. “Today they know they really made a difference.”
In another part of Operation Tiger, brigade soldiers discovered more than two tons of ammunition, explosives, mortar systems and rocket-propelled grenades cached in a mosque.
The ammunition was believed to be used in making the insurgency’s improvised explosive devices that have proved so lethal.
So far, at least 14 2nd Brigade soldiers have been killed in combat, with about half of those deaths the result of IEDs.
The cache was the largest found since 2nd Brigade arrived in Iraq in August, officials said. The sweep also resulted in 50 arrests, they said.
