Acting on a tip from a local Iraqi citizen, the Iraqi Army partnered with Soldiers from 3rd Platoon, Company D, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and found caches including dozens of rockets and rocket-propelled grenade rounds.
After noticing strange behavior from a citizen deemed upstanding in the community, 1st Lt. Keenan Ellison, 3rd Platoon leader, Co. D, 3-187th Inf., approached the man to see what was wrong. Within hours, several individuals were detained and a stockpile of explosives and bomb-making materials were taken off the streets.
The most interesting aspect was the location of one of the caches – a chicken coop. Somehow that fits with people that blow up pet markets. Check the baby duck ponds and fuzzy bunny houches.
“The ground in the chicken coup wasn’t right; the soil was loose, almost like sawdust,” Ellison said. “We gently and carefully dug through it with our hands until we hit the jackpot.”The platoon leader said “jackpot” was almost an understatement, as they unearthed a 20-pound bag of homemade explosives, switches, conductors, Bulgarian rockets, four RPG launchers, 66 RPG rockets, fuses, 30 RPG propellant rods, a container of RPG parts, eight fragmentary grenades, 27 81mm mortar rounds, 44 60mm mortar rounds, and various other ammunition and explosives paraphernalia.
An extra vehicle was needed to carry all of the munitions.
IA troops and Soldiers from 3rd and 4th Platoons, Co. D, 3-187th Inf., conducted a raid on surrounding houses to find those responsible for the cache. The troops set up inner and outer cordons and Iraqi Soldiers quickly interrogated and gathered intelligence.
The 3rd and 4th Platoons alternated houses until the individual responsible was located. Confronted with intelligence gathered from his neighbors, the individual confessed to storing the weapons and was detained. He was the one with chicken shit tracked all over his house.
“Without the IA we would have failed,” said 1st Lt. Phil Schupp, 4th Platoon leader. “Their language abilities allowed them to interrogate individuals at each house we raided and gather the intelligence for the next house to target. If we only had our one interpreter we would have failed to move quickly enough to catch the insurgent; it’s that simple.”
The unitÂ’s leadership said the raid was an example of how IA and Coalition Force partnership should function.
“The trust that we’ve build with the locals laid the foundation for this, and our partnership with the IA made our victory complete, allowing us to catch the insurgent as well as taking the munitions from their arsenal,” said Capt. Frank Castro, commander of Co. D, 3-187th Inf., 3rd BCT 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT).