Significant Weapons Cache Discovered at Mosque
Fallujah, Iraq -- Iraqi Security Forces supported by Marines of the 1st Marine Division of the I Marine Expeditionary Force discovered the largest weapons cache to date in the city of Fallujah. It was found in and around the Sa'ad Abi Bin Waqas Mosque in the Hey Al Shorta District here yesterday.
Abdulla Janabi was known to use this mosque to preach his anti-coalition rhetoric. The complex had also been suspected to be a safe house and logistics node for insurgents and their activities.
Iraqi Security Forces and Marines also discovered a vendor's truck in the mosque's compound that contained various explosive compounds, RPG's, grenades, mortar rounds, and rockets as well as miscellaneous IED-making materials. Initial assessments indicate the truck may have been a mobile IED factory.
The mosque itself is a multi-building complex that is situated within a larger compound and surrounded by a ten-foot high concrete wall.
The main-prayer building, a three story ornate structure, was heavily laden with small arms, artillery shells, heavy machine guns, and anti-tank mines. Other buildings within the compound had mortar systems, rocket propelled grenades, launchers, recoilless rifles and parts of surface to air weapons systems. Marines also found the barrel of an anti-aircraft gun outside one of the buildings.
Inside the rectory, Iraqi and US Forces found documents that detailed insurgent interrogations of recent kidnap victims as well as a rifle and a box of ammunition. Just outside the rectory door, they found a large bag of rockets. In a small shed adjacent to the rectory, used to house the mosque's air conditioning unit, Marines found a room packed with ordnance and weapons that had been rigged to explode.
The insurgents have used mosques as safe havens and took advantage of Multi-National Force-Iraq's respect for these sites. Mosques are granted protective status unless they are being used for militant purposes. Many mosques in Fallujah lost their protective status as places of religious worship when insurgents fired from minarets of these mosques at Multi-National Forces personnel.
Release #041125d
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