Published:October 29th, 2006 01:51 EST

Air strikes thwart terrorist ambushes

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Coalition aircraft thwarted two separate terrorist ambushes as ground forces moved toward their objective early Sunday morning near Balad. Coalition Forces encountered terrorist activity on two separate occasions along their travel route. After positive identification of the enemy by ground forces and with assistance from Iraqi Police, coalition aircraft engaged the targets with precision fires, killing four terrorists in one engagement and in conjunction with ground forces killed an estimated 13 others in a subsequent engagement along the same route.

Armed with RPGs, machineguns and AK47’s, the terrorists were planning to ambush the Coalition ground force. The plan did not succeed. No Coalition Forces were injured during the attack.

During each of the engagements, secondary explosions were observed, indicating IEDs or other terrorist weaponry used by al-Qaeda to kill innocent Iraqis and Coalition Forces patrolling the roads.

Despite the terrorists’ ambush attempts, Coalitions Forces successfully continued their operation and detained three suspected terrorists.

Source:DoD