LOC17:17
14:17 GMT
SAMARRA, Iraq, Feb 7 (KUNA) -- Coalition Force Soldiers, working with
intelligence from Iraqi Police in Northern Iraq, liberated two men locked
inside a large storage container being used as a subterranean prison in the Al
Jazeera desert near Samarra on February 4, the US army announced on Thursday.
Local Iraqi Police were given the information from Sons of Iraq (formerly
known as Concerned Local Citizens). The Soldiers of Company C, 2nd Battalion,
327th Infantry Regiment, quickly responded from Patrol Base Olsen in Samarra.
Coalition Forces arrived at the prison site and found two men inside the
buried container. The hostages, both from Yethrib Village near Balad, were
taken from a gas station along with a fuel truck by men in black masks.
"The two individuals told us they were taken because their station didnt
pay Al Qaeda extremist," said 1st Lt. Todd Baldwin, Company C, 2-327th.
The two men were malnourished and dehydrated, but showed no signs of
torture. They were able to move freely inside the container.
After receiving medical attention at Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora
near Samarra, the men were questioned. They said, while in captivity, there
were up to nine other people held prisoner. The two men didnt know what
happened to the others, but mentioned five of them were from a Sons of Iraq
group in Bayji.
The informant, who led Coalition Forces to the underground prison, also led
Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces to another location where an empty storage
container was buried. It is believed to be an old weapons cache.
"Iraqi Police and Sons of Iraq were the driving forces in the rescue of the
two men," said Baldwin. "They provided the human intelligence for us to
conduct the rescue operation." (end)
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