Karbala provincial headquarters raid | |||||||
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Part of the Iraq War | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
United States | Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Brian Freeman Jacob Fritz | Azhar al-Dulaimi | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Nearly 60 U.S. soldiers[1] Unknown number of Iraqi police and military personnel | 9–12 commandos[1][2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
5 killed 3 wounded [1] 4 captured (later executed) | None |
The Karbala provincial headquarters raid was a special operation[3] carried out on January 20, 2007, by the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq against the U.S. contingent of the Joint Security Station, located within the Iraqi Police headquarters. The assault, which left five U.S. soldiers dead and three wounded, has been called the "boldest and most sophisticated attack in four years of warfare" and is furthermore notable for being one of the few instances when any sort of militants or insurgents have actually managed to capture U.S. soldiers[4][5][6] since the Vietnam War.
CNN-01-23
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).On January 20th, a team of twelve men disguised as U.S. soldiers entered the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, where U.S. soldiers preparing to leave the following morning at 0500hrs closing the JCC for good, attacked and killed five soldiers, and wounded another three. The initial reports indicated the five were killed in the Karbala JCC, however the U.S. military has reported that four of those killed were actually removed from the center, handcuffed, and murdered.
The attack on the Karbala Provincial Joint Coordination Center was a complex, sophisticated operation. The assault team, led by tactical commander Azhar al Dulaimi, was trained in a mock-up of the center that was built in Iran. The unit had excellent intelligence and received equipment that made them appear to be US soldiers. Some of the members of the assault team are said to have spoken English. This was denied by the Soldiers stationed there.