World

Troops Find Massive Arms Caches

November 25, 2004 / 5:22 PM EST / CBS/AP

U.S. Marine officers said that U.S. and Iraqi troops sweeping Fallujah have discovered enough chemical weapons to fuel a nationwide rebellion, and that clearing the former insurgent bastion of arms is holding up the return of civilians.

Most of Fallujah's estimated 250,000 civilians left the central Iraq city ahead of the devastating Nov. 8 assault and "it will be probably several more weeks" before significant numbers of them can return, said Lt. Col. Dan Wilson of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

"We are looking at a very dense city, of some 50,000 structures. Each and every one of them has a potential [weapons] cache hidden inside," he told reporters.

Searching out and disposing of weapons is "very tedious hard work for the Marines," he said. "People still have to be patient, they need to have a safe and secure environment before they can go back."

Without providing details, Wilson called the amount of arms uncovered in Fallujah "stunning."

"The amount of weapons was in no way just to protect a city," said Maj. Jim West, a Marine intelligence officer. "There was enough to mount an insurgency across the country."

Marines clearing houses in Fallujah have found Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades, artillery shells and heavy-caliber cannon — with weapons caches often marked by a brick hanging by a string on homes' outside walls.

In other developments in Iraq:

U.S. troops found two more bodies Thursday in the northern city of Mosul, but came under attack by rockets, mortars and small arms fire as they recovered the bodies, according to the military and witnesses. Initial reports showed the bodies appeared to have gunshot wounds, another military official said.

An audiotape purportedly made by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi lashed out Wednesday at Muslim scholars for not speaking out against U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying they have "let us down in the darkest circumstances." Al-Zarqawi, who leads al Qaeda in Iraq, is believed to have escaped from his Fallujah headquarters.

U.S. soldiers have found more than two dozen improvised torture chambers in the back streets of Fallujah, reports Lee Cowan.

Some 6,000 Iraqi Army troops — the first batch of quick-reaction forces — graduated Wednesday from a southern military base, a military spokesman said.

Gunmen ambushed a taxi carrying an Iraqi National Guard soldier to work south of Baghdad on Wednesday, hospital officials said.

The number of U.S. troops wounded throughout Iraq since the Fallujah offensive began Nov. 7 has surpassed 850, and the wounded total for the entire war has topped 9,000, the Pentagon said Tuesday. The Pentagon has not given a comprehensive report on the number of American forces killed and wounded in Fallujah alone, but officials said last week that at least 51 had been killed and 425 wounded.

U.S. and Iraqi forces moving into the city smashed much of the insurgents' weaponry, bending gun barrels to prevent future use. Many large weapons caches were blown up quickly with only a cursory attempt at inventory.

West noted that insurgents stashed arms in mosques. "Even gravesides were used to bury weapons," he said.

West said U.S. forces turned up a "cook book" with instructions on using mercury nitrate and silver nitrate and descriptions of nerve agents. He didn't elaborate. West said the majority of the weapons caches were in the south, as the insurgents likely expected the attack to be initiated from there.

Marines ran repeated feints against Fallujah's southern neighborhoods in the weeks before the assault, and then attacked from the north. U.S. and Iraqi forces are stepping up operations ahead of elections scheduled for Jan. 30. Marine commanders called Fallujah an important staging point for the bombings, kidnappings and ambushes plaguing Iraq.

West said Marine planners originally earmarked four days for their forces to reach Fallujah's main north-south thoroughfare, but the goal was obtained in 24 hours.

Ultimately, the country's interim government will decide when the city is safe for civilians and Iraqi security forces will screen returnees, Wilson said.

"Iraqi forces are in a much better position to screen whoever is coming and going into Fallujah," Wilson said, adding the Iraqi troops performed better in Fallujah than in previous operations across Iraq, when many deserted.

"They were getting better and better, they bonded and have now become seasoned Iraqi battalions capable of pursuing terrorists," he said. "Before you know it, they will be dealing with the insurgency."