Coalition troops seeking Fallujah roadside bomber

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Coalition troops seeking Fallujah roadside bomber
By Geoff Ziezulewicz, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, January 27, 2008

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Coalition forces are seeking the source of a roadside bomb that injured a Marine here early Saturday after the Marine’s explosive ordnance disposal team was dispatched to detonate it.

The Marine, of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, was in stable condition after being evacuated to the surgical hospital at nearby Camp Fallujah, company commander Capt. Sean Miller said about seven hours after the incident. The Marine had not been identified by Stars and Stripes’ deadline Saturday.

Miller said the bomb did not appear to be made of military grade material and was a homemade bomb that may have been planted in reprisal for Company K Marines arresting two “high-value targets” in the past few days.

The bomb was found at about 4:30 a.m. on the main route that runs east to west through the Anbar province city. It was within the vicinity of three Iraqi police checkpoints that are supposed to control access into the city, Miller said.

This potential security lapse and the incident come at a time of increased security gains in Fallujah, once the nucleus for extremist activity in Iraq. Marines have credited the security improvements to a local population that has turned against insurgents and to the continued progression of local security forces, among other factors.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51959