Posted on 09/27/2003 3:45:03 PM PDT by Calpernia
TIKRIT, Iraq - U.S. troops uncovered one of their biggest weapons caches to date Saturday at a farm near Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s birthplace, including anti-aircraft missiles and a huge quantity of explosives used to make the homemade bombs that have killed numerous American soldiers.
In the second raid in as many days on a farm near the village of Uja, where Saddam was born and the site of a recent bomb attack against American soldiers, U.S. troops acting on a tip dug through the soft earth near a river bank and found the cache underneath a covering of reeds and straw.
"This is a significant discovery because everything we take out of the enemy's hands can't be used against us," said Maj. Mike Rauhut, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment.
The cache turned up 23 Russian-made surface to air missiles, 1,000 pounds of plastic explosives, four rocket propelled grenade launchers and 115 rockets, a mortar and 40 mortar rounds, 1,300 blasting caps and 423 hand grenades.
The raid was a follow-up on information gleaned following a Thursday assault on the farm, a 2 1/2-square-mile spread of lime, pear and pomegranate trees.
"It's tied to some former regime people. That's always good as it makes a small dent on their ability to resist," Rauhut said.
Their target at the time was a reported cache of rockets and homemade bombs that are used to attack U.S. convoys on the main road through Tikrit, also known as "RPG Alley" because of rocket-propelled grenades frequently fired by Iraqi resistance fighters in the area.
At the time, in an area just 500 meters (yards) away from the cache, soldiers had found a heavy machine gun and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
"It is a substantial weapons cache, it's not the largest we have found but it probably rivals it," Rauhut said. "The most significant part are the surface-to-air missiles and explosives."
The SA-7 shoulder-fired missiles could pose a significant threat to the helicopters used by the U.S. military in and around Tikrit.
U.S. troops have been carrying out near-daily raids following a coordinated attack by Iraqi resistance fighters on Sept. 19 that killed three American soldiers. The raids have resulted in dozens of arrests and follow-up raids.
Specialist Moses Rodriques of the 4th Infantry division, 1st brigade, 22nd infantry regiment carry rocket propeled grenades, Saturday, Sept 27, 2003 after they uncovered a large arms cache just outside Tikrit, Iraq (news - web sites) .(AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Any stash is cache` (a.k.a. $cash) when in the hands of a Democrat, and it's deemed an "arsenal" if it goes "bang", the owner is a private citizen, and the owner lives in Kalifornia (as in .. "Police discovered an arsenal buried in the conservative Joe Smoo's garage yesterday. Said Smoo, 'It was only a couple of hunting rifles and an antique revolver..'. The state police spokesman replied, 'This tip paid off big... another terrorist-voter is off the streets, permanently! You can never trust these radical-right-wingers.. one moment they're friendly, and the next they're trying to recall the friggin' governor or something. Some poor guy in Sacramento could have been hurt by this guy...').
SFS
And Barbra Streisand would be asking: "What sizes and colors do those burkas come in? By the way, red clashes with my big pasty skin color."
There would have likely been more terrorist attacks by now.
The coverage would probably be the same only in this case it would be true if not understated.
IF they are Iraqi, they are at best "guerilla" fighters, if not they are just plain garden variety terrorists. But of course AP could never be so bold as to actually call them that.
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