Huge Iraqi arms cache found

The Sunday Times (Australia) ^ | April 4, 2003

[Ooh-Ah]

BRITISH soldiers today stumbled across the biggest haul of weapons discovered so far in the two-week campaign against Iraqi militia insurgence in Al-Zubayr.

Corporal Andy Lambert, 28, was on a routine patrol with Delta Company of the Black Watch regiment when he spotted rocket-propelled grenades near a bus shelter in the east of the town just before first light.

He halted his warrior fighting vehicle and found nine boxes of lethal warheads beside the launchers. He then ordered a search of the adjacent building.

Inside a walled compound, he and his men broke into a freight container holding an arsenal of brand new arms which included grenades, Russian and Chinese machine guns, automatic carbines and almost a tonne of ammunition.

Corporal Lambert, hailing from the northeastern English city of Newcastle, then used a sledgehammer to smash his way into the main house within the compound and found it stacked from floor to ceiling with additional firearms, helmets, uniforms and other military equipment.

"It was obviously some kind of militia or Baath headquarters. In one room of the two-storey building we found a scale model of the town. It was probably used to plan ambushes on our patrols," he said.

"There was also a large meeting room lined with chairs. It had hand-drawn maps of the area plastered over its walls."

A local resident approached the patrol shortly afterwards and told them that the house was abandoned last week, confirming intelligence reports that many of the local militia commanders had decided to give up the fight and flee towards Basra.

Captain Campbell Close, company second in command, said most of the serviceable weapons recovered in the raid were taken away for storage to be kept and maintained to equip a post-war Iraqi army.

"Despite everything, when this is over we will need some kind of local force to help maintain internal security and to reduce the peacekeeping burden on other nations," Close said.

"The fact that the armoury was undefended backs up our local intelligence on the whereabouts of some of the guys we'd like to talk to. Most of them seem to have done a runner about a week ago after the Black Watch imposed its presence on the town.

"We are even seeing some radical militia members queuing for food and water at our distribution points. They appear to have laid down their weapons and gone back into civilian mode.

"The 51st Division, the only regular (Iraqi) soldiers in our sector, took off their uniforms, left their firearms in barracks and deserted more or less en masse."

[Dog]

Brand new Russian and Chinese weapons.....someone has some 'splaining to do..

[The KG9 Kid]

"... Captain Campbell Close, company second in command, said most of the serviceable weapons recovered in the raid were taken away for storage to be kept and maintained to equip a post-war Iraqi army."

Yeah, and I hope that the US Army Ordnance department stamps highly visible service marks on both sides of the receiver on these weapons so that the Israelis know where the sudden influx of arms into the West Bank is trickling in from.

[gcruse]

bttt

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[maica]

I just hope these 'civilians' don't decide to become 'soldiers' again next week.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Brand new Russian and Chinese weapons

I'm sure this surprises nobody. Instead of the usual token bitching, we need to seriously take Russia and China to task. Thank God we have a president that has the guts to do it instead of just selling out the country for his own personal gain like Klinton.

[68skylark]

done a runner

I've never heard that expression before. I like it.

[PoisedWoman]

"We are even seeing some radical militia members queuing for food and water at our distribution points. They appear to have laid down their weapons and gone back into civilian mode.

Maybe back into civilian mode, or gathering their strength for further mischief? "

[Dog Gone]

I'm not sure, but I doubt rifles or machine guns were prohibited imports for Iraq.

[MediaMole]

Maybe they bought the stuff at a gun show. The evil vendors are always selling automatic weapons without a background check.

[Petronski]

Inside a walled compound, he and his men broke into a freight container holding an arsenal of brand new arms which included grenades, Russian and Chinese machine guns, automatic carbines and almost a tonne of ammunition.

All of which should--should, I say--be made available to the public at a fair price.

Yeah, that'll happen.

[Petronski]

Ach!

They should be made available to the American public...

[Ooh-Ah]

Re: done a runner
Thanks, I missed that.
Good term for the French.

[RoseofTexas]

HECK I'm still waiting for the BIG ammo, THE MOTHER OF ALL AMMOS, you know, WMD!! Where the hell are they!! We need to find the chemical weapons in order to make the UGLY TOADS and blix( the town's idiot) to EAT CROW!! Gosh I hope we find them soon or else..:(

[Grut]

...the two-week campaign against Iraqi militia insurgence...

Say what?

[templar]

Maybe back into civilian mode, or gathering their strength for further mischief? "

Not a whole lot of mischief without weapons or ammunition. I doubt there would be much of a resistance plan that wouldn't have dispersed and issued the arms cache before going into hiding.

[templar]

They should be made available to the American public...

Can't. They're full auto. Banned by Reagan back in '86.

[Petronski]

That's my point.

[husky ed]

I have no problem with these "arms cache", we have them here in the states, their called "Armorys".

However when they find the WMD that is a different story.

[PhilDragoo]

Brand-new Russian and Chinese weapons bump.

[Live free or die]

Brand new Russian and Chinese weapons.....someone has some 'splaining to do..

While I hope this administration has the guts to call them on this, I don't know if we will.

[Poohbah]

Brand new Russian and Chinese weapons.....someone has some 'splaining to do..

Yeah. You do.

The article makes no statement about the vintage of the weapons.

[Dog]

and his men broke into a freight container holding an arsenal of brand new arms which included grenades, Russian and Chinese machine guns, automatic carbines and almost a tonne of ammunition.

[cmsgop]

The WMD are there! Give our Troops a chance.

[Ooh-Ah]

I have no problem with these "arms cache"..

I don't believe they were allowed in the "oil for palaces", excuse me, "oil for food" program. And then there are our buddies, the Russians and Chinese...

[Poohbah]

Thank you.

F***ing eyeglasses prescription needs updating.

However...

You DO realize that there are people who make a living smuggling small arms, right?

And that they may not particularly give a s**t about UN arms embargoes?

And that they are not necessarily tied to the Russian and/or Chinese governments?

And that one of their favorite methods is to use forged end-user certificates?

[Dog]

Yes I do....

[Redcloak]

They obviously got them at an American gun show.

</sarcasm>

[Carry_Okie]

More goodies financed by the UN Oil for Weapons... er, FOOD programme.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

This cannot be.

There was a strict UN ban on weapons sales to Iraq!

< /irrelevant filter >

[husky ed]

I don't believe they were allowed in the "oil for palaces", excuse me, "oil for food" program. And then there are our buddies, the Russians and Chinese...

Not arguing that point just the fact that they found a store house of weapons, that all countries have.

I agree they should have been using the money from oil for food. But we all know (except for U.N. inspectors) that that wasn't happening.

[doc]

Great to see that we're giving our "allies" billions in aid. Where are the WMD? Did we receive bogus "intelligence" on this matter? Now I'm hearing that even if we don't find WMD that is was worth the war to get rid of a SOB dictator. How many countries fall into this category?

[SAMWolf]

I shocked! Shocked I tell you!

[fourdeuce82d]

Brand new Russian and Chinese weapons.....someone has some 'splaining to do..

Not sticking up for either party, but this doesn't really prove anything- not until/unless we can check serial numbers, establish dates of manufacture, etc- these things could have been around for years, passed around through several countries.

[cold_dead_fingers]

"We are even seeing some radical militia members queuing for food and water at our distribution points. They appear to have laid down their weapons and gone back into civilian mode.
__________________________________________________________

In what other period in history would one enemy feed another during the war? I thought I had noticed certain men in the food distribution crowds that acted peculiar and proceeded to take food after they were instructed to stop. My first thought is that they were militia civilian dressed military.

[TaxRelief]

Paging, Mr. Blix!

[Sub-Driver]

the Iraqi's were following the "French Military Handbook".....Chirac would be proud

[PhilDragoo]

You say there are brand-new Russian and Chinese weapons in my club!?
I am shocked, shocked!

[Sub-Driver]

Ah, you wore Blue, and the German's wore grey..

[SAMWolf]

LOL! I love that line.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

the Iraqi's were following the "French Military Handbook".....Chirac would be proud

Was it Dennis Miller who recently said he typed "French military victories" into Google and it came back with "Did you mean French military losses?"? LOL!

[jimkress]

Nah. They got them from the French.

[aruanan]

Brand new Russian and Chinese weapons.....someone has some 'splaining to do..


Go look at the chart at THIS SITE to see just how much Russia has been involved with the death machine of Saddam Hussein. This gives a good graphic feel to the allegations that the U.S. has funded Saddam's military despotism.

[mvpel]

Oh I don't know about that - you can get AK-47s and SKSs dirt cheap from sporting goods catalogs. It's just hard to fathom how many of those things were cranked out. And "brand new" does not mean "recently manufactured" - guns don't spoil.

[wcbtinman]

"Brand new Russian and Chinese weapons..."

I wouldn't get real hung up on the 'brand new' part. I recently bought a brand new, never fired, still in the factory crate Russian M-44...from sometime prior to WW2

[Sir_Ed]

So I wonder what happens if we DON'T find WMD's? It's good we take that pig out and free the people of Iraq. As far as I'm concerned, that's reason enough, but ya' gotta think the mass media will really pile on if it turns out that he has none!

Ed

[justshutupandtakeit]

Thanks for that chart. 1% of Iraqs arms from US, Ladeeda. Our foes are such fing liars.

[American in Israel]

...so that the Israelis know where the sudden influx of arms into the West Bank is trickling in from.

BTTT! You got that right. Those Baathist's got to go some where, and Palestine is where they will head. Over 80% of Palestinians say their parents are from somewhere else in polls.