World

Marines Arrest 4 In Carroll Kidnapping

August 10, 2006 / 9:57 AM EDT / CBS/AP

U.S. Marines who arrested a man accused in the kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll said she was held in a home within sight of a sprawling U.S. military base in western Iraq.

Marines said a May 19 operation about 2 miles outside the Taqqadum logistics hub netted the first of four Iraqis accused of kidnapping Carroll. U.S. officials believe she was held in the suspects's residence and other homes.

Carroll, a freelance journalist for the Christian Science Monitor, was released March 30 in Baghdad after 82 days in captivity.

The U.S. military said Wednesday four Iraqi men had been arrested in the kidnapping but had not decided what legal action to take against them. Her kidnappers, a previously unknown group that called themselves the Revenge Brigade, had threatened to kill Carroll if all female detainees in Iraq were not freed.

U.S. officials did release some women detainees before her release but said the decision was unrelated to the demands.

After the breakthrough raid, U.S. forces captured three more suspects and freed two kidnapped Iraqis in hideouts where Carroll was thought to have been held. One of the homes was booby trapped and full of explosives.

Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment said independent tips led them to a cluster of homes near an abandoned train station just outside the Taqqadum base about 50 miles west of Baghdad. A one-story home in a relatively peaceful neighborhood that Marines often drove by matched their intelligence reports.

"Where it's at, there's a mosque, a school. It blends into the neighborhood. It's like any other house," said 1st. Sgt. Chris Reed, 32, of Kirkland, Wash., who helped arrest the first suspect.

In other developments from Iraq:

Three U.S. soldiers were killed Wednesday in Iraq's restive Anbar province, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The soldiers assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division "died from enemy action," the statement said. It gave no other details.

A U.S. Army helicopter crashed in Iraq's western Anbar province, leaving two crew members missing and four injured, the U.S. military said Wednesday, as Iraqi and U.S. reinforcements move into the capital in a bid to stem sectarian violence that threatens civil war. The four injured were in stable condition.

The ongoing violence in Baghdad has prompted U.S. commanders to reinforce troop strength in the city. Over the past weeks, a force expected to number nearly 12,000 has been assembling here to try to take the streets back from Sunni and Shiite extremists. A U.S. statement Tuesday said about 6,000 additional Iraqi troops were being sent to the Baghdad area, along with 3,500 soldiers of 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

On Tuesday, in a hearing for U.S. soldiers accused of raping and murdering an Iraqi girl and killing her parents and 5-year-old sister, testimony painted a picture of a demoralized unit, drained emotionally after the deaths of comrades. On Monday, prosecutors said GIs drank whiskey and hit golf balls before murdering the girl.

Gunmen on two motorcycles assassinated Col. Qassim Abdel-Qadir, administrative head of an Iraqi army division in the southern city of Basra, said a police official who did not want to be named for security reasons.

Gunmen opened fire Wednesday on a group of men selling black market gasoline in western Baghdad, killing three of them and wounding one, police said.

About 1,500 violent deaths were reported in the Baghdad area last month, deputy Health Minister Dr. Sabah al-Husseini said Wednesday, providing figures that showed a steady increase in killings since the beginning of the year. Those figures did not include members of the U.S.-led coalition.

Romanian President Traian Basescu arrived in Baghdad to meet Iraqi and U.S. officials and visit some of the country's 890 troops stationed there. Basescu was received by President Jalal Talabani and will meet other key U.S. and Iraqi officials.

On the afternoon of the operation west of Baghdad, 20 Marines driving to the targeted home were struck by a roadside bomb. Shortly afterward a second nearby bomb exploded and insurgents fired from a car several hundred yards away.

"We knew it was a limited time window. It was our best shot at it," said 1st Lt. Jake Cusack, 24, of Grand Rapids, Mich., who matched together the intelligence reports that led to the home.

Marines who arrived at the suspect's house tried to present their stopover as a regular visit. While several Marines spoke with the suspect in his living room, others quickly searched the rest of the home.

Inside, Marines confirmed that the house matched their intelligence reports. They found a slip of paper with Carroll's name written on it, $3,600 in cash, and an AK-47 hidden in a car outside. A false ceiling in the shower, said to hide explosives, was also found.

"Hey, sir, don't react but this is it," recalled Cusack radioing to the commanding officer, who was still chatting with the suspect.

Marines said the suspect calmly responded to their questions — until one Marine mentioned how a recent span of kidnappings in the area had angered him.

"He blanches, just for a second, then (a Marine) says, 'All right, you're coming up with us,"' recalled Cusack.

Three male suspects from the home were detained, including one man now accused in the abduction of Carroll. Marines said they were confident they had found the right home because it specifically matched their intelligence reports.

"I'm more sure about this than any other detention I've had in Iraq," said Cusack. "I'm 100 percent sure he's the guy."

The FBI announced the four arrests Wednesday, saying that it had worked closely with Carroll's family as well as the Baghdad-based Hostage Working Group and the Departments of Defense and State.

Special Agent Richard Kolko said in a release that the matter remains an ongoing FBI investigation. He did not answer any questions about "potential prosecution" of those arrested for taking Carroll hostage.

The suspect's home lies just within view of a fence that surrounds the Taqqadum air base. Each day the surrounding communities can hear dozens of U.S. helicopters and planes flying into the logistics hub that serves Marines in volatile western Iraq.

"They didn't seem to worry that they were that close to a military base. Maybe they thought it'd be the last place anybody would look," Reed said.

On the day of her release, Carroll was dropped off by her abductors at the offices of the Iraqi Islamic Party. There she was interviewed by the Sunni party's television station before she was retrieved by U.S. forces.

Though she had been shown weeping on a tape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television weeks before, Carroll said she was never hurt or threatened by her captives.

"I was kept in a very good, small safe place, a safe room, nice furniture," Carroll said. She said she was given clothing and plenty of food.

An editor for the Christian Science Monitor said the newspaper was aware of the announcement in Baghdad and expressed gratitude for U.S. efforts to win her release.

"Like reporters everywhere, we are reassured to hear that several of those believed to have held Jill have been apprehended," editor Richard Bergenheim said. "The daily threat of kidnapping in Iraq remains acute for all. Everything possible needs to be done to relieve Iraqis and others of this scourge."

The kidnappers, a formerly unknown group calling themselves the Revenge Brigade, had demanded the release of all female detainees in Iraq, saying Carroll would be killed otherwise. U.S. officials did release some female detainees but said the decision was unrelated to the demands.