US troops seize rebel weapons in Baghdad

Police and US troops seized weapons during raids in Baghdad and in northern Iraq, US and Iraqi officials said today.

The raids took place after a small but symbolic rocket attack on a US compound in the Iraqi capital.

A cache found yesterday near Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tikrit included 23 Russian-made surface-to-air missiles, 1,000lb of plastic explosives, grenades, grenade launchers, rockets, a mortar and mortar rounds.

It was among the largest caches found there since American troops arrived in April, according to Major Mike Rauhut of the 4th Infantry Division.

US officials said troops also detained “a former high-ranking regime loyalist” but gave no further details.

Later yesterday near the northern city of Kirkuk, soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division found eight SA-7 surface to air missiles, seven mortar tubes, and “a substantial number of electrical switches” used to make homemade bombs, division spokeswoman Major Josslyn Aberle said today.

In Baghdad, Iraqi police found a much smaller cache yesterday, recovering about a dozen small rockets, grenades and mortar rounds. The warheads had been removed from the rockets, suggesting they were to have been used in fabricating small roadside bombs that have caused casualties among US troops and Iraqi civilians.

Police General Ahmed Kadhim Ibrahim said the weapons were found after a tip from an informant.

He said the weapons had been brought to Baghdad from the southern port of Basra after being smuggled in from a neighbouring country that he would not identify.

US troops and their Iraqi partners have been trying to curb the flow of weapons and stop attacks against American forces. Those attacks have killed more than 80 US soldiers since President George Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq on May 1.

Over the past 90 days, the number of attacks against US troops has ranged from the “low teens to the mid-20s” each day, according to Charles Heatley, spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Most of the resistance has been centreed in the area north and west of Baghdad, the stronghold of the country’s Sunni Muslim minority. Despite their minority status, Sunnis formed the core of Saddam’s regime.

Yesterday, guerrillas struck at a symbol of American control in Iraq, firing three rockets or rocket-propelled grenades at the Al-Rashid Hotel, which is filled with American soldiers and civilians. The explosions caused no casualties and superficial damage.