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WASHINGTON - US intelligence believes that a cache of manufactured bombs seized in Iraq about two weeks ago was smuggled into the country from Iran by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an intelligence official said Tuesday. "We believe they came from Iran's Revolutionary Guards," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. The find is significant not only because of the Iranian connection but also because it indicates manufactured bombs are now being introduced in a conflict that has seen the use of mainly improvised explosive devices.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that weapons recently confiscated in Iraq were "clearly, unambiguously from Iran." The shipment of sophisticated bombs was confiscated in the past two weeks by U.S. and Iraqi troops in southern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday. The U.S. officials said the devices were more lethal and more sophisticated than the improvised explosive devices typically used by Iraqi insurgents. After examining the truckload of devices, intelligence analysts said the explosive parts are similar to those used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Troops found the devices inside crates seized near a border crossing on the Iraqi...

August 9, 2005 Release Number: 05-08-13 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE IED SAFE HAVEN DESTROYED BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces destroyed a house in Baghdad August 6 after confirmation that the structure was being used by terrorists as a storage site for improvised explosive devices. A detainee, captured earlier this week, provided credible information that the house was purchased as a safe haven for terrorists as well as for storage of weapons and explosives. Coalition Forces discovered that the house contained timing devices, detonation systems and improvised explosive devices. Before conducting the operation, Coalition Forces cleared all civilians and temporarily moved personal...

August 7, 2005 Release Number: 05-08-11 1/11th ACR DESTROYS TERROR CELL, FINDS WEAPON CASHES ABU GHRAIB, Iraq — In the 48 hours spanning Aug. 3 and 4, Soldiers of 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division conducted a series of raids to nab key planners of terrorist attacks and to seize weapons and bomb-making materials in Abu Ghraib, a western province of Baghdad. The Soldiers captured four suspected terrorists, discovered five weapons caches, and confiscated more than $2,000 in U.S. currency. Beginning at 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 3, Soldiers from B Troop, 1/11th ACR...

Text of report by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website Ghazni, 6 August: Security forces discovered a large munitions dump in the Khogiano area of [southern] Ghazni Province on 5 August. Ghazni Security Commander Abdorrahman Sarjang said some 40-truck-load of ammunition was discovered in the Turkan area of Khogiano. The cache included Sakr-20 and BM-12 missiles, mortar, artillery and RPG shells. He said Turkan is a remote mountainous area and once was a major base of the former mojahedin. Due to the remoteness of the area, moving the cache is a difficult task, the security commander told Pajhwok News Agency....

KABUL, Afghanistan Thousands of rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft ammunition have been seized in central Afghanistan in the largest cache of militant weapons discovered in months, a government spokesman said Sunday. The arms were to be used to subvert crucial legislative elections on Sept. 18, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Saher Azimi said. The raid in Ghazni province's Khogyani district Saturday netted some 2,000 surface-to-surface rockets, 3,000 mortar rounds, 500 artillery shells and 100 boxes of anti-aircraft bullets, he said. "The enemy planned to use them to sabotage the elections," Azimi said. "This was a very important operation to prevent the...

Man could face federal charges, officer escapes injury after a shot is fired Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are testing a cache of weapons seized from a Wheeling home in the early hours of July 19 to see if federal charges can be brought against a man arrested by local police that day. Wheeling police arrested Gregory A. Banks, 43, of 496 Isa Drive, and charged him with aggravated discharge of a weapon and reckless discharge of a weapon after police said Banks fired an AK-47 at a police officer. Officer James Theberge arrived at...

Iraqi security forces and Multinational forces had arrested 44 suspects during raids in different parts of the country and also seized large cashes full of guns and ammunition. According to Multination forces' statement: Iraqi police had arrested 6 suspects of terrorist acts during raids at west of Mosul. The statement also added that U.S. forces had assaulted north of Talaafar and arrested 18 suspects; as 3 people were arrested near Iraqi-Syrian borders.

Iraqi and U.S. troops respond to two separate attacks; ordnance disposal teams detonated unexploded ordnance discovered at the scene. MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq, July 26, 2005 — Iraqi Army and U.S. soldiers assigned to Task Force Baghdad helped treat victims of two separate terrorist attacks in Mahmudiyah and Al-Dora, July 21. Prior to the explosions, U.S. troops assigned to 3rd Platoon, E Troop, 108th Cavalry Regiment, 48th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, and the Iraqi Army’s 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Division operations and intelligence leaders met to plan future combined missions near Siad Abdullah and the surrounding areas which are known...

FOB KALSU, Iraq – U.S. Soldiers captured more than 100 insurgents as well as weapons and explosives during a recent operation in the vicinity of Owesat. Items seized and destroyed included 186 mortar rounds, three 122mm artillery rounds, 65 hand grenades and 500 pounds of explosives. Rocket-propelled grenades, launchers, small-arms ammunition and aiming equipment were also found and destroyed. The Soldiers are from the 150th Engineer Battalion, 155th Brigade Combat Team. The 155th BCT is a U.S. Army unit assigned to the II Marine Expeditionary Force (Fwd) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 19, 2005 Contact: U.S. Army Lt. Col. Frederick P. Wellman IRAQNA Cell: 011-964-0790-194-0326 DSN: 318-852-8325 Commercial: 703-343-8325 MCI: 914-822-2121 E-mail: wellmanfp@mnstci.iraq.centcom.mil Joint raids lead to captured weapons MOSUL, Iraq – Iraqi Security and Coalition forces conducted a series of successful joint raids in and around Mosul July 18, according to a multinational forces report. Mosul Police officers and elements of 1-24 U.S. Infantry Regiment discovered a weapons cache hidden in the floor of a chicken coop during an early morning operation. Officials found 26 surface-to-air missiles, 700 mortar rounds, 450 rocket-propelled grenades, and 150 57 mm...

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2005 – Iraqi and U.S. forces established a joint/combined operations center to develop intelligence and track operations during a series of missions July 15, military officials in Baghdad, Iraq, said. This was the first time Iraqi and U.S. forces established such an operations center, Task Force Baghdad officials said. The staffs of each unit worked side by side in the JOC, resulting in the capture of 39 suspected terrorists in several operations. "Coordination between our respective units has never been better," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John Basilica Jr., commander of the 256th Brigade Combat Team. "The...

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2005 – Two American soldiers in Iraq were killed by improvised explosive devices July 16. Another two soldiers were wounded. In the first incident, a soldier assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died July 16 of wounds received July 15 from a car-bomb attack. The incident reportedly occurred during combat operations near Iskandariyah. Also on July 16, at about 4:00 p.m. in the Kirkuk province, an IED killed one Task Force Liberty soldier and wounded two other soldiers. The two wounded soldiers were taken to a coalition forces medical treatment facility....

Baltimore police said yesterday they raided an East Baltimore clothing store allegedly used as a front for the illegal sale of high-powered weapons and accessories, including assault rifles, shotguns, handguns, ammunition and body armor. Organized-crime detectives raided the store, Moon Wear in the 2400 block of Greenmount Ave. on Thursday, about 15 hours after its owner, Andre Mills, 33, was pulled over on a traffic stop, police said. During the stop, officers said they discovered ammunition for high-powered rifles. Police obtained a warrant and searched the store, recovering one Bushmaster assault rifle, three handguns, a Mossberg shotgun equipped with a...

July 2, 2005Release Number: 05-07-01 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TROOPS FIND WEAPONS CACHE NEAR AR RAMADI CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, AR RAMADI, Iraq – Iraqi Security Forces from the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division and Coalition forces from the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, uncovered seven weapons caches, a car-bomb factory and a roadside bomb making factory late afternoon on June 30 in the Industrial area, northeast of the Saddam Mosque during a patrol to disrupt terrorist activity last night. This was the first patrol the Iraqi Soldiers conducted with Coalition forces in the area. The Iraqi Soldiers were tipped...

BAGHDAD, June 30 (KUNA) -- The US forces discovered Thursday two weapon caches in the north Iraqi cities of Baqubah and Samarra. A statement for the Multi-National Forces said that the 3rd Brigade Combat Team seized three improvised explosive devices, six rocket-propelled grenades, one machine gun, one sniper rifle and five AK-47 assault rifles in a weapons cache in Baqubah, Diayala province in north east Baghdad.

In the middle of the night, an Iraqi man leads U.S. troops to a weapons cache. FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARRIOR, Iraq, July 1, 2005 — Based on information from an Iraqi civilian, U.S. soldiers from B Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Armor Regiment, Task Force Liberty discovered an unexploded ordnance cache in the Kirkuk Province June 29. “By far, this is the biggest weapons cache the 116th has found,” said U.S. Army 1st Lt. John Thew, B Company, 3rd Battalion 116th Brigade Armor Regiment. “We have found in one day, what usually takes four months.” “By far, this is the biggest...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU , Iraq – Soldiers of the 150th Engineer Battalion, 155th Brigade Combat Team, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) detained 25 suspected terrorists and uncovered five weapons caches during an operation in Ojeer al Sharqi. Items seized and subsequently destroyed include: (573) Mortar rounds (37) Rockets (3) 155mm artillery rounds (14) Rocket propelled grenades (24) Land mines (80) Hand grenades (1000) Feet of time fuse (105) Projectile fuses (22) Cans of small arms ammunition (2) 81mm mortar systems (2) 70 lb bags of bulk explosive (1) Can of hand grenade fuses (1) Rocket propelled grenade launcher (1)...

BAGHDAD, June 19 (KUNA) -- American forces discovered three caches of weapons south the capital, Baghdad. A Multi-National Forces (MNF) statement issued Sunday said that American Force Reconnaissance under the supervision of the American Marines found three huge weapon caches in Al-Yousifiyah town in Babil province. The weapons found included mortar shells, rocket shells, rocket launch pads, and an array of machine guns and other weaponry.

Operation Spear Begins; Iraqi Farmer Turns In Weapons Cache American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, June 17, 2005 – U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces today began Operation Spear, aimed at rooting out terrorists and foreign fighters and disrupting terror support systems in and around Karabilah, Iraq. About 1,000 Marines and sailors from Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, and Iraqi security forces began the operation early this morning in northwestern Anbar province. Elements from 1st Tank Battalion and 2nd and 4th Assault Amphibian Battalions are participating in the operation, along with coalition aircraft. In other Iraq news, a local farmer...