IRAQ: UNITED STATES GENERAL SAYS U.S. MARINES DISCOVER MORE THAN 350 WEAPONS CASHES IN REBEL-HELD CITY OF FALLUJA

Record ID: 337974

  • Title: IRAQ: UNITED STATES GENERAL SAYS U.S. MARINES DISCOVER MORE THAN 350 WEAPONS CASHES IN REBEL-HELD CITY OF FALLUJA
  • Date: 29th November 2004
  • Summary: (U7) FALLUJA , IRAQ (NOVEMBER 26, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV U.S. SOLDIERS GATHERING WEAPONS; MV U.S. SOLDIER LOOKING AT WEAPONS; SCU ROCKET PROPELLED GRENADES (RPG) AND AK-74s ON GROUND 0.28 2. MV U.S. SOLDIER CLASSIFYING THE WEAPONS; CLOSE-UP OF EXPLOSIVES; SCU AMMUNITIONS 0.57 (U7) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (NOVEMBER 28 ,2004) (REUTERS) 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) AIR FORCE BRIGADIER GENERAL ERV LESSEL, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS IN IRAQ SAYING: "Well certainly, there is a risk that insurgents will come back in. they are all over the country but we will continue to pursue them. The success we had in Falluja is providing us with great opportunity to keep the insurgents and terrorist on the run. We have taken away Falluja as a safe haven as a base of operations. We have discovered more than 350 weapons cashes, we have discovered sixty six mosques had been used as a bases of operations and storage sites for weapons." 1.26 (U7) FALLUJA , IRAQ (NOVEMBER 26, 2004) (REUTERS) 4. SLV SOLDIER GUARDING TWO DETAINEES SCU ONE OF THE DETAINEES; MV U.S. SOLDIER SEARCHING THE DETAINEE 1.53 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 14th December 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: FALLUJA, BAGHFAF, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVARUNFR1CF9QE0W7XYJNUMEPCW
  • Story Text: A U.S. general has said that U.S. marines discovered
    more than 350 weapons cashes in the rebel-held city of Falluja.

    U.S. general said on Sunday (November 28, 2004) that U.S.

    forces had discovered more than 350 weapons caches and 66
    mosques used as a base of operations and storage places for
    weapons in the rebel-held city of Falluja .

    "We have discovered more than 350 weapons caches and 66
    mosques used as a base of operations and storage places for
    weapons." general Erv Lessel deputy director of U.S.

    military operations in Iraq said .

    U.S. air strikes, artillery barrages and infantry
    operations wrested control of Falluja this month, and the
    military said they killed over 1,600 foreign Muslim
    militant fighters and insurgents loyal to toppled Iraqi
    leader Saddam Hussein. But Marines still face resistance in
    Falluja, where many buildings were reduced to piles of
    rubble.

    Marine officers have said they would inspect an
    estimated 50,000 houses in the city west of Baghdad, a
    tedious task that involves searching everything from
    ventilation systems to couches as guerrilla snipers await
    opportunities to fire.

    The house-to- house search had resulted in the
    discovery of a large quantity and variety of weapons, from
    Egyptian sub-machineguns to Russian and German models and
    flame-throwing rifles. They said that weapons caches where
    found everywhere from an upscale villa to the homes of
    Iraqi policemen.

    Hundreds of mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, rocket
    launchers and bomb-making equipment have been uncovered
    inside couches, behind hidden walls and even on top of the
    city water tower, Marine officers said.

    Marines even found Russian and German machine-guns from the
    Word War Two era. The United States hopes the searches will
    deprive Iraq's guerrillas of their main base and weapons point,
    putting a lid on insurgent suicide bombings, shootings and
    kidnappings.

    U.S. and Iraqi troops killed some 1,600 militants and took
    over 1,000 prisoners in clearing Falluja of rebels the US
    military and Iraqi officials said.


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