After returning from a family member's funeral, four women and six small children were kidnapped by armed men wearing ski masks on a Baghdad street on May 1. The women and children were taken after having to witness the execution of their male family members. They were held for more than a month's time, during which the women endured daily rapings and beatings and were constantly threatened with beheading, one of the women later said in a statement given to U.S. Special Forces. On June 1, their ordeal came to an end as Iraqi Security Forces and a U.S. Special Forces team freed the hostages during an air assault raid that targeted an al Qaeda in Iraq kidnapping cell south of Balad. The operation, called Operation Falkirk, was a combined operation conducted with U.S. Special Forces Soldiers and Iraqi Army Scouts to locate and detain suspected terrorists in Balad with ties to the kidnapping of two U.S. Soldiers taken captive after their combat patrol was ambushed May 12.
The raid resulted in a sustained firefight that left one U.S. Special Forces Soldier wounded, two insurgents dead, and the primary target of the operation captured and seriously wounded.
"We're always prepared for a gunfight," a team sergeant stated. "Operation Falkirk turned out to be much more than we originally planned for, and handed out a challenge."
During the operation, the Special Forces team and their Iraqi counterparts conducted the late-night air assault against three remote houses reportedly sheltering the terrorist group. Shortly after beginning the assault, the team came under heavy, small-arms fire from terrorists inside one of the houses. One Special Forces Soldier was hit and evacuated. Other members of the team immediately assaulted the house and overwhelmed the terrorists.
When the gunfire ended, two insurgents were dead, one of them in the stairwell leading to the roof where the women and children were discovered, the team sergeant said. At that time, the women and children were believed to be the family members of the insurgents, not victims of mental and physical abuse by their captors.
As the women and children were being escorted down from the roof, the sergeant said he noticed something didn't seem right. "(The women and children) had to step over one of the dead insurgents to go down," he said. "There was no reaction by any of the women or the children as they moved passed. Normally, the wife and children will collectively get hysterical over a dead family member, but not one word was uttered."
The other insurgent was also in open view as they proceeded through the house. But again, the sergeant said, "the women and children gave no reaction."
U.S. Special Forces team members began questioning some of the women, but soon received word that the house was wired with explosives. The team immediately evacuated everyone from the house. During the evacuation, the team received word that another terrorist had fled the area on foot during the initial assault. The fleeing insurgent had entered an adjacent canal and was hiding in thick reeds several hundred meters from the original objective.
Members of the Special Forces team, together with Iraqi soldiers, entered the canal in pursuit of the fleeing terrorist. In chest-deep water, a Special Forces sergeant eventually located the hiding terrorist. The terrorist then lunged at the sergeant and was shot in the chest by an Iraqi Scout providing security for the sergeant.
| Ah yes, the sucking chest wound. Those hurt. |
| Thus illustrating the difference between us and them. |