Here we are again with this week’s successes with respect to finding, identifying, and neutralizing a threat the media likes to categorize as a hopeless cause. The area of IEDs is just another example of the successes we’re having in the war in Iraq against terrorism. Here we go:

For those that don’t know, 1st Brigade Combat Team soldiers are training an Iraqi Combat Engineer unit to be IED hunters. These soldiers are highly motivated to fight IEDs and insurgents and love working with Coalition Forces to learn how to combat this menace. One [Iraqi] soldier was on his day off and saw individuals planting an IED. The soldier took his weapon, chased the individuals down, disabled their vehicle and apprehended the insurgents. Iraqi soldiers are being trained on basic IED awareness and vehicle operations, which will aid in counter-IED missions. Troops also practiced mounted and dismounted patrols with Coalition forces.

With that said, here’s what was discovered this week that will not live to see a dead body:

January 28 – Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division captured two men during a patrol south of Ramadi after seeing the men place two bombs. The first bomb consisted of six blocks of C4 explosive, one battery, one timer and a radio base station. The second bomb was made from one 122 mm round, a battery, a cell phone charger and a blasting cap. The men and the initiator devices were turned over to the authorities. The remaining bomb materials were destroyed on site by an explosive ordnance team.

January 28 – Troops from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division and Coalition forces discovered two caches during patrols on. The first cache, discovered northwest of Hit, consisted of one heavy machine gun, three rocket-propelled grenade launchers, four 107 mm rockets, 10 RPG rockets, seven 160 mm mortar rounds, four 82 mm mortar rounds, one 90 mm round, three 100 mm rounds, 36 14.5 mm rounds, 500 assorted small arms rounds, 40 blasting caps, 112 RPG boosters, two grenade fuses, six artillery propellant components, three RPG propellant components, 50-feet of detonation cord, 50-feet of time fuse, 49 mortar fuses, one IED initiator, six AK-47 magazines and six M16 magazines. The second cache, discovered west of Hit, contained one sub-machine gun, one bolt-action rifle, one AK-47, 250 rounds of various small arms ammunition, two rifle grenades, 10 blank 7.62 mm rounds and one trip flare.

January 30 – Iraqi Police and Coalition troops discovered a cache of weapons southeast of Baqubah. The cache consisted of 7 60 mm mortar rounds with fuses, wires, timers and radios. An explosive ordinance disposal team was called in and cleared the cache.

January 30 – Iraqi soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division and Coalition forces discovered three weapons caches. The caches consisted of 25 60 mm high explosive rounds, two 60 mm white phosphorous rounds, 15 81 mm rounds, a hand grenade, four 82 mm mortar tubes, three 60 mm mortar tubes, 26 160 mm mortar rounds, two 122 mm rounds, one 152 mm round, one 120 mm mortar round, one SA-14 rocket, three 115 mm rounds, three sticks of PE-4 explosive, a radio base station with batteries, one timed fuse and detonation cord.

In just these four incidents I was able to get information on, Iraqi and coalition forces prevented over 100 IEDs from getting built and emplaced to kill our soldiers and Iraqi civilians. That is a very conservative figure as I could easily make many more with the amount of material I’m reporting here. Those 100 IEDs equate to between 800 and 1000 lives being saved IN JUST ONE WEEK. Not only that, but all the ammunition will not be used to add complexity to the IED ambushes which also present a substantial threat to soldiers and civilians. I did not even add the deaths that result from these small attacks in the number of people saved by these finds.

That’s it for this week’s IED Roll-Up. To read past IED updates, you can go HERE and see the past 13 weeks of discoveries, failed IED attempts, and lives saved through our efforts to defeat these manaces.