A Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System fires a 227 mm rocket at a building that insurgents were using to store explosives and a nearby weapons cache in the open desert near the northern Iraqi city of Bayji, Dec. 27. US Army Photo by Spc. Rick Rzepka, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) PAO.

COB SPEICHER

“We have the capabilities to strike anywhere at anytime,” said Lt. Col. Peter Wilhelm, commander of the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment. “This week’s VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) attack in Bayji destroyed more than a hundred innocent civilian lives. It is a top priority to disable the enemy’s bomb-making capabilities in this area, so we can deter these kinds of vicious attacks like this from ever happening again.”

The rockets from Detachment 1, Alpha Battery, 2nd Battalion, 4th Field Artillery Regiment from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, were in support of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) operations, who maintain the peace in the restive city.

(Press Release, Multi-National Division – North, Public Affairs)

In Other Recent Developments Here:

BAGHDAD — Coalition forces killed four terrorists and detained one suspect today, during operations targeting al-Qaida in central Iraq.

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Special Operations Forces, advised by U.S. Special Forces, detained two suspected criminal extremists during a raid Dec. 24 near the Iraqi village of Abu Saydah as Saghir, northeast of Baqubah in Diyala Province.