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Support Company 1st Battalion Welsh Guards provide 'top-cover'

An intelligence-led operation planned by the Al Uzayr Chief of Police and supported by Support Company, 1st Battalion Welsh Guards resulted in the rescue of two hostages on Thursday 3 March 2005.

The men, a fuel truck driver from Mosul and a lorry driver from Kirkuk, had been driving their vehicles south on Route 6 on the evening of 27 February 2005 when two cars carrying eight armed men had forced them off the road between Al Uzayr and Al Reesat.  The men were bound, blindfolded and taken to a mud hut where they remained until the morning of their rescue.  The kidnappers had attempted to extract a ransom of $3500 for each of the men without success.

Meanwhile, acting in response to information on the movements of suspected kidnappers and hijackers, Al Uzayr Police instigated a vehicle search operation in the area of the Al Jawabir check point on Route 6, supported by the Welsh Guards.  As the kidnappers felt a net closing in on them they released the hostages 20 minutes walk away from an IPS/MNF checkpoint and instructed them to head towards it before fleeing empty-handed.

The active support of the Welsh Guards Battlegroup in anti-hijacking and –kidnapping operations in southern Maysan has produced several other successes in recent months and has emboldened the IPS to tackle a problem that has plagued Route 6 for years.

Eleven suspected hijackers were stopped and arrested on 6 November 2004 on a joint night time Vehicle Checkpoint operation.  On 24 December 2004 two other hostages were rescued nearby in similar circumstances to the rescue by the joint IPS/MNF patrol.

On 3 January 2005 three suspected hijackers were arrested and several stolen vehicles recovered as MNF and IPS swept through an area where gangs from were known to operate.

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• 1st Battalion Welsh Guards

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