Another Tip, Another Cache Found in Another Mosque

Local residents provided intelligence to Coalition Forces yesterday that allowed Iraqi National Police officers, along with Soldiers with the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, joined forces for the seventh time in three weeks to uncover a weapons cache in eastern Baghdad. This time, the cache was discovered inside the grounds of the Imam Al Madhi Husseniyah Mosque:

Officers of the 1st Battalion, 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi National Police Division found the cache during a search of the mosque following a tip from a concerned resident.

While the officers searched, Soldiers with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, based out of Fort Riley, Kan., pulled security outside the mosque.

The cache discovery continued a trend that sees both Iraqi Security Forces playing a key role in disrupting insurgent activity and Iraqi citizens taking the protection of their families into their own hands and working to rid their streets of dangerous caches by providing valuable tips to authorities.

“The local residents’ role in bringing the streets of Baghdad back to normalcy and providing a safe environment for their children is the key to success, and these tips are evidence of their desire to live in peace.” said Col. Jeffrey Bannister, commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. “The progress made by our Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army partners is indicative of the training I have witnessed, and I’m not surprised by their competence and diligence.”

Items found in the weapons cache included: three hand grenades, one five-pound bottle of explosive, one rocket-propelled grenade tube, five rocketpropelled grenade propellants, 11 rocket-propelled grenades, six AK-47s, 10 flak vests, 15 plates of body armor, 10 sets of desert camouflage uniforms, one propane tank with propellant, and two sets of police lights.

Inside a mosque. Color me shocked.