Car Chase Leads to Two Arrests Near Jisr Diyala

By Spc. Ben Hutto
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq – Scouts from Troop C, 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment arrested two men following a car chase, Jan. 11, near Jisr Diyala.

The two men were suspected of emplacing improvised explosive devices and are believed to be a part of an extremist group responsible for IED attacks targeting national police and coalition forces.

“The detention came about because my guys stopped to help out one of our contacts, whose car had broken down,” said Capt. Darrell Melton, commander of Troop C. “They saw the guys we had been after and chased them down.”

The day prior, Troop C, with Soldiers from the 789th Ordnance Company, from Fort Benning, Ga., currently assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, destroyed an IED found by Concerned Local Citizens.

“Troop C, 3-1 Cav. Regt. and the Concerned Local Citizens continue to combine to decrease the IED threat along a major highway in the Mada’in Qada,” said Maj. David Fivecoat, from Delaware, Ohio, the operations officer for the 3rd BCT. “These efforts are part of the reason why IED attacks have decreased in the qada by 32 percent since April.”

The 3-1 Cav. Regt. is assigned to the 3rd BCT, 3rd Infantry Division, from Fort Benning, Ga., and has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March, 2007.