The Hunt Ends offers background on some of the SOF involvement:
…TF 145 was responsible not only for gathering the intelligence that led to Zarqawi, but also for acting upon it swiftly, creating a cycle in which each set of raids yielded more intelligence, which in turn drove more raids.
Made up of a rotating set of units from Joint Special Operations Command, the task force, based at Balad, includes squadrons from the military’s two “direct action†special-mission units — the Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, better known as Delta Force, and the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, also known as Naval Special Warfare Development Group, as well as other Army and Air Force special operations elements and a variety of intelligence organizations.
The June 7 attack culminated about six weeks of focused effort.
“We had clear-enough evidence about a month-and-a-half ago that allowed us to start [getting] down to the point where we were able to prosecute the action … against that safe house,†Caldwell said, showing a slide that listed eight men in Zarqawi’s organization captured or killed between April 6 and May 31.
But judging from Central Command’s own press releases, Caldwell’s slide only scratches the surface of TF 145 operations in recent weeks.
On April 16, a force of SEALs and Rangers attacked an al-Qaida in Iraq safe house in Yusufiyah, 20 miles southwest of Baghdad, killing five terrorists and capturing another five. On June 2, “wanted al-Qaida terrorist†Hasayn Ali Muzabir was killed near Balad.
Between those two missions, “coalition forces,†the phrase often used by Central Command to disguise the participation of TF 145, captured or killed more than 100 members of al-Qaida in Iraq. Indeed, in a prophetic remark, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch told reporters in Baghdad on May 4 that the coalition was “zooming in†on Zarqawi.
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