Multiple Caches Found, Destroyed by 3rd HBCT

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq – Multiple weapons caches were seized and destroyed by the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team throughout the Mada’in Qada Jan. 2.

Soldiers of Company A, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, secured a cache found by Concerned Local Citizens in the Al Bawi area of the Mada’in Qada. The cache was brought by CLCs to a local sheik’s house where Soldiers of the 789th Ordnance Company, attached to the 3rd HBCT, collected and destroyed the munitions. The cache, consisting of two 130 mm mortars, two strands of crush-wire, five rocket-propelled grenade warheads and one 82 mm mortar.

In a separate incident, the CLCs of Al Zatia informed Battery A, 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery of a cache consisting of one 155 mm round and one 157 mm round found during a CLC patrol. Battery A Soldiers and members of the 789th Ordnance Co. moved to the CLC headquarters in Al Zatia to secure and destroy the rounds.

In Jisr Diyala, an Iraqi citizen provided a tip to Iraqi Security Forces at the Joint Security Site that led to the discovery of a cache near Al Arifiyah. Soldiers from Company D, 1-15th Inf. Regt. and the 789th Ordnance Co. secured the cache of munitions. The cache consisted of three 60 mm high-explosive mortars, one 82 mm HE mortar and several Iraqi Police uniforms and patches.

“The CLCs in the Mada’in Qada continue to provide us with IED-making material on a daily basis,” said Maj. Dave Fivecoat, from Delaware, Ohio, the 3rd HBCT operations officers.

The 3rd HBCT, 3rd Infantry Division is from Fort Benning, Ga., and has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March 2007.