FORWARD OPERATING BASE MACKENZIE, Iraq — Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division’s Task Force 1-18, working with local Iraqi National Guardsmen and police, have picked up 30 alleged insurgents and more than 60 weapons during a series of raids in and around Tikrit over the last two weeks, according to a Task Force Danger news release.
During operations called Mandarin Squeeze, Tangerine Pinch and Mustang Flex, the units searched about 900 houses in northern Tikrit and the neighboring villages of Umkashafa and Abu Toma. The release said the raids targeted financiers, weapons dealers and insurgents funded by Mohammed Al-Hadoshi, Saddam Hussein’s personal secretary, who has not been captured.
The soldiers also handed out about 200 job cards, entitling the recipient to a general labor job in the Tikrit Job Corps for six months.
Although it is Saddam’s hometown, Tikrit has been relatively peaceful compared to other parts of the restive “Sunni Triangle” patrolled by the 1st ID-led Task Force Danger.
During October, five insurgent attacks in Tikrit wounded four Americans and seven Iraqi soldiers or contractors. That compares with 19 attacks that killed four and wounded 38 in Baqouba, a city patrolled by the 1st ID’s 3rd Brigade, according to Task Force Danger statistics.
Insurgents have remained active as Ramadan reached its climax late last week and the battle in Fallujah continued. The Danger sector, a West Virginia-sized area north of Baghdad, received 54 attacks by mortar, rocket, bomb and gunfire late Wednesday and Thursday, according to intelligence reports received by the task force’s 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment.
That was the most of any day since 1st ID took over the zone in March, topping the previous high set the day before.
