Troops expose rebels’ hideout
BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. and Iraqi forces searching Iraq’s western province of Anbar on Saturday uncovered a network of bunkers hidden in a vast underground quarry and equipped with air conditioning, food and a wide assortment of weapons, a Marine spokesman said.
The quarry, near the town of Karmah, was as long as three football fields and had been separated into rooms that apparently had housed insurgents, the spokesman, Capt. Jeffrey Pool, said in a statement.
“Within the various rooms making up the facility, Iraqi security and coalition forces discovered four fully furnished living spaces, a kitchen with fresh food, two shower facilities and a working air conditioner,” Pool said.
The weapons stored in the facility included mortars, artillery shells and rockets, according to Pool, who added that night-vision goggles and cell phones also were found.
Over the course of three days, Pool said, combined American and Iraqi forces assigned to the 2nd Marine Division discovered about 50 caches of arms and ammunition in Anbar.
The restive province has long been a stronghold of the Iraqi insurgency and a conduit for bringing foreign guerrillas into the heart of the country. One month ago, the Marines mounted a seven-day assault in far western Anbar aimed at wiping out foreign insurgents there and their means of support.
Also in Iraq:
“In Mosul, 225 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces captured a man Saturday whom Iraqi officials called one of the top insurgent leaders in northern Iraq. An afternoon raid in Mosul’s eastern industrial sector netted Mullah Mahdi, according to Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Khalil Obeidi.
“A suicide car bomber blew himself up Saturday at an Iraqi police checkpoint on a main road connecting northern Mosul with the nearby city of Tal Afar, killing two officers.
“Early today, an Iraqi police woman was killed in eastern Baghdad’s Amin district. Gunmen in another vehicle sprayed the police woman’s car with automatic fire, killing her, said police Col. Ahmed al-Alawi.