Irak — Iraqi Forces Kill 2 Suspects in Firefight

BAGHDAD, June 14, 2010 — Iraqi forces killed two, sus­pect­ed al-Qai­da in Iraq crim­i­nal asso­ciates, wound­ed two oth­ers and arrest­ed sev­en more dur­ing two com­bined secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions con­duct­ed near here June 12, mil­i­tary offi­cials said.

An Iraqi civil­ian was wound­ed dur­ing the course of oper­a­tions, offi­cials said. 

Iraqi forces and U.S. advi­sors searched in two loca­tions for a sus­pect­ed al-Qai­da in Iraq leader who alleged­ly is involved in facil­i­tat­ing vehi­cle-borne and road­side bomb attacks against Iraqi and U.S. forces. 

Dur­ing an oper­a­tion south of Bagh­dad, Iraqi forces received fire after instruct­ing the occu­pants to leave the build­ing where they were locat­ed. Secu­ri­ty forces returned fire in self-defense, killing two and wound­ing two crim­i­nal asso­ciates and a civilian. 

Infor­ma­tion and evi­dence gath­ered at the scene led Iraqi forces to iden­ti­fy and arrest five crim­i­nal asso­ciates of the war­rant­ed al-Qai­da in Iraq leader. 

The two wound­ed sus­pects and the wound­ed civil­ian were tak­en to a near­by mil­i­tary hos­pi­tal and were list­ed in sta­ble condition. 

Iraqi forces and U.S. advi­sors also searched a build­ing dur­ing a sec­ond oper­a­tion west of Bagh­dad. Infor­ma­tion and evi­dence gath­ered at the scene led Iraqi forces to iden­ti­fy and arrest two addi­tion­al crim­i­nal asso­ciates of the war­rant­ed al-Qai­da in Iraq leader. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)