Pfc. Jason Sales, 20, kicks in a locked door during a search for insurgents in the Abu Saif neighborhood of Baghdad. Soldiers knocked on doors during the raid but kicked in locked doors where no one answered. (James Warden / S&S)
Pfc. Jason Sales, 20, kicks in a locked door during a search for insurgents in the Abu Saif neighborhood of Baghdad. Soldiers knocked on doors during the raid but kicked in locked doors where no one answered. (James Warden / S&S)
Spc. Daniel Blair, 22, checks a room while searching for insurgents. (James Warden / S&S)
Blair clears a room in a building while searching for insurgents. (James Warden / S&S)
Sales (left) and Spc. Dayton Trinkle, 24, talk with women and children after American soldiers temporarily seized all the men in an apartment building in the Abu Saif area of Baghdad. During the raid, most women clustered in a corner of their home with their crying children while the Americans searched the niches for anyone who might be hiding. (James Warden / S&S)
A soldier places zip cuffs on a man captured during the raid. The Americans corralled a few dozen men in a gated store outside the building after the raid. They then walked them one-by-one past a Humvee with the informant inside. The masked informant told the Americans whether they should release the men or continue to detain them. (James Warden / S&S)
BAGHDAD — The two platoons burst out of their Humvees to the side of a four-story building in the Abu Saif neighborhood of Baghdad on Saturday.
One squad sprinted to the back to catch any “squirters,” as the soldiers call fleeing insurgents. The others crashed through the front and started clearing various nooks and crannies in the aging structure.
An informant had told soldiers from Blackfoot Troop, 3rd Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment that several insurgents were in the building. That unit and soldiers with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, then weaved through the area’s crowded market streets at about 11 a.m. to check out the information.
The ensuing operation snagged two suspected insurgents thought to be break-away members of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia. One is a low-level member and the other a local leader, said 1st Lt. Joshua Lowery, the 24-year-old Blackfoot executive officer. Both are thought to have been involved in weapons trafficking, vehicle thefts and transferring vehicles to be used for car bombs.
Lowery said he does not have any information that the two suspects participated in recent car bombs that killed and wounded several people in a market in the area. Two other men were cleared of suspicion and released after questioning, troops said.
“It went very well,” he concluded. “It helped with all the [Iraqi] people we have. They have a lot of good info. Without it, it’s hard to identify who’s who.”
