Operation Purple Haze

Operation Purple Haze
	Part of Iraq War
Date	15 July 2007
Location	Baghdad, Iraq
Result	Successful Iraqi and American raid
Belligerents
United States Army ; New Iraqi Army	Iraqi insurgency
Commanders and leaders
Abboud Qanbar; David Petraeus	unknown
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
None	Two caches of homemade explosives detained

In the early morning hours of 15 July 2007, Baghdad Soldiers, working together with Iraqi Army troops, discovered two caches totaling approximately 700 lbs. of homemade explosives. The raid was subsequently named Operation Purple Haze.

Operation Details

The 3rd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division and Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment made the cache finds during Operation Purple Haze, part of an ongoing effort to establish security in the western Baghdad Jamiya'a neighborhood.

The homemade explosives, 14 50-lb. bags, were found in an abandoned house along with ball bearings and detonation cord. An explosive ordnance disposal unit conducted a controlled detonation of the one bag of homemade explosives at the site of the discovery. The bag was torn and the explosives were leaking, making the bag unsafe for transportation. All other items in the cache were removed from the house prior to demolition.

In a separate raid during the same operation, a smaller cache of munitions and weapons was discovered. Two machine guns, one AKM assault rifle and a variety of knives, grenades and other small explosives were uncovered in a second abandoned home in the neighborhood.