Saturday, April 22, 2006
Insurgent Snared by Wrong Number
Star and Stripes is reporting that an Iraqi interpreter helped U.S. soldiers snare a group of insurgents when they called a cell number in an abandoned home by error.
The interpreter answered the phone and "on the other end a person said, 'Hey, coalition forces are here, go ahead and run away,’" specifically ordering him to "[g]o and run into the palm groves."On a routine patrol, U.S. troops with 1st Battalion, 68th Armor came upon a house in the midst of dense greenery and at the end of a dusty country road.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Nicodemus, 33, said he immediately noticed that no Iraqi men were around.
Suddenly, a cell phone inside the home rang, said Nicodemus, of Altoona, Pa.
The guy kept calling back to find out "what the Americans were doing." And the interpreter kept the ruse going. Eventually the insurgent called to tell the soldier that help was on its way. In ten minutes, they would "attack the Americans."
When the seven insurgents arrived at the house they were greeted with a hail of bullets.
The first guy that came in the door just dropped like a rock. The other two guys behind him got hit pretty hard, too. The rest grabbed their wounded and just ran back off.”
// posted by Howling Latina @ 11:45 AM 
