Edited for brevity.
As Army chaplains and support groups notified families yesterday of the first fatalities among Fort Lewis’ Stryker brigade in Iraq, the unit recorded its first successes against insurgents. In fact, part of the brigade took the Stryker’s first prisoners yesterday when it surprised Iraqi insurgents who had intended to attack U.S. troops with a homemade road mine, ABC news reported. The brigade also raided a home nearby, confiscating a cache of rocket-propelled grenades, dynamite and mortars. In a 24-hour period, ABC news producer Mike Gudgell, who works out of KOMO-TV in Seattle, reported that the Strykers have been shot at, mortared, lost three troops in a rollover accident and taken their first captives. The brigade’s fast new Stryker vehicle, quieter than the Bradley infantry carriers it replaced, is credited with sneaking up and capturing two Iraqis trying to tie together and bury two mortar tubes in the road. The homemade bombs are often set off remotely with a cell phone or door-opening device. But catching Iraqis in the act of planting them has been rare, Gudgell reported.
Hopefully the first of many successful engagements to come! |