Weapons and ammunition lie on the floor of an Iraqi residence captured during a raid by Company A, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment in Baghdad’s Rashid district March 30, 2007. U.S. Army Courtesy photo




By Multi-National Division
Camp Victory, Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 9, 2007 — Baghdad forces seized a large weapons cache in southwestern Baghdad, March 30, after observing suspicious activity around a residence.

Infantrymen of Company A, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry (The Black Lions) silently established an outer cordon around an Iraqi house and moved in. The inner cordon element, led by 1st Lt. Michael Sheer, entered the building with a squad of heavily armed Black Lions. Shortly after, Capt. Bret Hamilton, Attack Company commander, monitoring the unit radio heard Sheer say, “We have found a cache.”

"There is no doubt that the 25mm chain gun on our Bradley platoon made a dramatic impression on the enemy tonight."
-- 1st Sgt. Jeffery Griffith

The house under search was located in an insurgent-dominated neighborhood, and Attack Company immediately received enemy small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.

“The enemy did not want to surrender this sizable cache without a fight, but our soldiers had rehearsed this operation and were prepared for multiple contingencies,” Hamilton said. The first sighting was of several weapons in the living quarters of the residence. A search uncovered a hidden room, which served as massive enemy weapons and demolitions storage site within the home.

The cordon and search was intended to disrupt enemy actions. The unit was supporting an Iraqi army forward-operating base that had been under enemy attack for 36 hours. Seizure of “Target-2,” this large weapons, ammunition, and demolitions cache struck an immediate blow to an insurgent attack on Forward Operating Base Lion, the Iraqi army facility nearby, said an officer at the scene.

“The enemy lost the initiative when the sniper rifles and mortar systems were seized by Attack Company,” Maj. Will Cotty, Iraqi army training team chief, said. “Capt. Hamilton's team and the Iraqi army have developed a strong partnership in a short period of time.”

As the battle raged on in the Baghdad neighborhood, Attack Company with the Black Lion explosive ordnance detachment began to remove the cache from the residence. Attack helicopters prowled the sky overhead looking for enemy movement around the Black Lion perimeter, keeping insurgent fighters at length. The insurgents that attempted to take down the Attack Company soldiers were met with overwhelming fire.

“There is no doubt that the 25mm chain gun on our Bradley platoon made a dramatic impression on the enemy tonight,” said 1st Sgt Jeffery Griffith from Company A. Significant weapons removed from the enemy’s possession include AK-47s, sniper rifles, machine guns, mortar systems, rocket propelled grenades, 107mm rockets, TNT, C-4 plastic explosives, bulletproof vests and a 240mm Soviet rocket.

“Operations developed with actionable intelligence, like tonight, allow us to keep the enemy off-balance,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jamil Gutierrez from Company A. “My platoon was proud to remove these weapons and demolitions from the enemy's hands.”

Labels: 1-28th Infantry, Al Rashid, Baghdad, Black Lions, Good News, Iraq, photos, weapons cache, weapons search