THE TENSION: OIF Summary; Dec. 3, 2008: Cooperation Leads to Weapons Seizures in Iraq

Dispatches from the Front:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2008 -- Coalition and Iraqi security forces seized multiple weapons caches in Iraq this week in their ongoing effort to remove weapons from insurgents, military officials reported.

Army Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a spokesman with the 4th Infantry Division and Multinational Division Baghdad, said increased seizures are proof of good cooperation among coalition and Iraqi troops, as well as civilian security groups like the Sons of Iraq.

"The combined efforts of the Sons of Iraq and Iraqi army soldiers are instrumental in removing these weapons from the hands of extremists and safeguarding the Iraqi people," Stover said.

Iraqi soldiers and Sons of Iraq members seized two weapons caches in Baghdad yesterday that included a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and two anti-personnel rounds from a market in Rusafa.

Later in the day, an Iraqi citizen unearthed a cache while operating a bucket loader in Mansour and reported it to Iraqi soldiers. The cache consisted of two AK-47 assault rifles, an RPK machine gun, 11 60 mm mortars, a 120 mm mortar, an anti-tank weapon, three RPGs, four hand grenades, 30 RPK rounds, 33 shotgun shells, two .50-caliber rounds, six flares, three fuses, nine detonators, 20 mortar charges, two Kevlar helmets, four license plates, a Global Positioning System tracker and a compass. The Iraqi soldiers will turn the cache over to the U.S. 1st Infantry Division’s 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Squadron, to be destroyed.

In other cache finds in Iraq:

National police in Baghdad handed over two armor-piercing munitions to coalition troops to be destroyed yesterday. The explosives were found in the Adhamiyah and Sadr City districts.

Coalition troops seized a weapons cache yesterday in Baghdad that included a 68 mm rocket, two large mortar rounds and numerous small-arms ammunition.

Coalition and Iraqi soldiers seized two weapons caches Dec. 1 in Baghdad that included multiple projectiles and bomb fuses found in a mosque in Sadr City and several AK-47s, shotguns and ammunition in an another location.

Coalition and Iraqi soldiers seized two caches south of Baghdad on Nov. 30 that included 15 rockets, a rocket launcher, six mortars and dozens of mortar rounds and RPGs.