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| Task Force Ironhorse 2-29-2004 |
| 2004-03-01 |
| Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s 3d Brigade Combat Team conducted a joint raid with ICDC forces in coordination with the Baghdad police to capture Nahdem Al Marsumi, the leader of a terrorist cell trying to operate out of Samarra. During the raid, coalition forces captured seven individuals including Marsumi and five men known to be a part of the terrorist cell. The ICDC also captured an individual suspected of being involved in an attack at the Samarra City Council building last month. Once the ICDC soldiers received a tip from a local source on the whereabouts of Marsumi, they organized and initiated the raid and were on site within two hours of receiving initial reports. Task Force Ironhorse soldiers from the 555th Engineer Group located a cache of ammunition buried approximately five kilometers east of Forward Operating Base Speicher Feb. 27. The soldiers found more than a thousand rounds of high explosive artillery and mortar rounds and 50 BLU-97 submunitions. The site was secured and an explosive ordinance team will destroy the cache in place. While on his way to work Feb. 27, an ICDC soldier observed some men digging near a house north of Baiji. He reported the suspicious activity to his supervisor who sent an ICDC patrol to investigate. The patrol discovered an ammunition cache. They established an over-watch position on the house and captured one individual suspected of burying the ammunition when he returned to the site later that afternoon. The ICDC seized the cache and turned in it to 4th ID soldiers. The cache included 20 68 mm helicopter rockets, seven rocket-propelled grenades, 17 82 mm mortar rounds and six 60 mm mortar rounds. Working together, 4th Infantry Division soldiers from 3d Battalion 67th Armor Regiment, the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and Iraqi police captured five individuals suspected of anti-coalition activities in a joint raid in the town of As Sadah in Diyala Province 27 Feb. The individuals are suspects in the bombing of a local health clinic. An Iraqi led soldiers from Task Force Ironhorse’s 14th Engineer battalion to three weapon caches approximately 20 kilometers north of Tikrit Feb. 27. The caches included five 82 mm rockets and 15 rocket warheads. All three caches were destroyed in place. While on patrols as part of Operation Trailblazer to clear the highways of IEDs, soldiers from the 14th Engineer Battalion discovered a cache consisting of 201 100 mm tank rounds located approximately 150 feet off the north side of Highway One west of Balad. The cache was destroyed in place without incident. |
| Posted by:Chuck Simmins |
| #7 Zirconium is the indendiary. Much more stable than the old standbyes Magnesium or Phosphorous. Plus, it really catches the eyes of the ladies. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-3-1 4:40:22 PM |
| #6 Steve, my guess is that it's a fulcrum, intended to pivot the casing pieces as they fragment. It lasts just a tad longer in the explosion than the casing, so it affects the movement of the fragments. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-3-1 1:58:47 PM |
| #5 "... contains a shaped charge, scored steel casing and zirconium ring..." Uh, what's the zirconium for? Something the marketing boys dreamed up? "New! Improved! Now with Zirconium!" |
| Posted by: SteveS 2004-3-1 12:39:44 PM |
| #4 If they picked up 50 of these you gotta wonder how many others went boom when they tried. "However, if the submunitions are disturbed or disassembled, they may explode, thus, the need for early and aggressive unexploded-ordnance clearing efforts." One can only hope that a number of terrorists managed to get their hands blown off in such a manner. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-3-1 11:56:16 AM |
| #3 Shipman, sounds like they picked up the ones that didn't go off: The BLU-97/B Combined Effects Bomb contains a shaped charge, scored steel casing and zirconium ring for anti-armor, fragmentation and incendiary capability. The bomblet case is made of scored steel designed to break into approximately 300 preformed ingrain fragments for defeating light armor and personnel. CEB is an effective weapon against such targets as air defense radars, armor, artillery, and personnel. However, because the bomblets are dispensed over a relatively large area and a small percentage of them typically fail to detonate, there is an unexploded-ordnance hazard associated with this weapon. If they picked up 50 of these you gotta wonder how many others went boom when they tried. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-3-1 10:52:06 AM |
| #2 I'm pretty sure that US combat deaths in Feb were well below 29 (one per day), although Iraqis murdered in suicide attacks must have topped 200. Maybe tomorrow the Central command will put out the stats. |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-3-1 10:38:39 AM |
| #1 and 50 BLU-97 submunitions. What? Perhaps they salvaged them somehow? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-1 10:10:56 AM |