Shopkeeper who lured troops to house bomb arrested

NY Times:

The courtyard was a scene of devastation, strewn with medieval mud brick and modern cinder block, shattered alike by the explosion that killed six American soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter.

From the alleyway outside a day later, there was little sign that this was the house where the bomb exploded Wednesday, during an offensive to clear Sunni insurgents from the northern Diyala River valley, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The same building complex had been cleared of explosives two weeks earlier, commanders say. But the ill-fated unit was apparently lured back to it by a villager who did not tell them that insurgents had sneaked back in later and rigged the house to explode.

A soldier who was there, Sgt. Joseph Weeren, described in a telephone interview on Sunday how, after he was pulled from the wreckage, he and his comrades pulled four badly wounded survivors, men “screaming in pain,” from the rubble using only their bare hands and vehicle jacks.

“It was scary, because how do you move 1,000 pounds of concrete?” said Sergeant Weeren, 27, a sniper team leader from Winchester, Mass. “At that time that’s all I was thinking.”

...

Sergeant Weeren was praised by commanders for his presence of mind because after the explosion, ignoring his concussion and blurred vision, he headed straight back into the village, alone, to arrest the shopkeeper who had directed them to the compound.

“I never felt like that in my life before,” he said, explaining why he went after the shopkeeper. “I can’t really describe it,” adding: “I didn’t have any body armor on. I didn’t have a helmet. I was just so angry I went back after this guy, and I grabbed him.”

...

Capt. David Gohlich, the company commander, said the house had been used as an insurgent base for the last five or six months after it was commandeered from a wealthy Shiite family, which was forced out.

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His squadron commander, Lt. Col. Rod Coffey, said he believed that the shopkeeper, who is now in custody, was involved. “I think he was complicit because what the locals were saying was that” the insurgents “used to stop by his store,” he said.

...

This shop keeper better be spilling his guts about the enemy or there may be some literal gut spilling if he does not. It is unusual to be able to connect the enemy so directly with one of the locals, but it is an example of how much things have changed in Iraq the other locals are identifying those cooperating with the enemy.