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Falluja Yields a Trove of Arms and Information
(Los Angeles Times) Patrick J. McDonnell - Among the most novel finds in Falluja, the capital of the Iraqi insurgency, was an ice cream truck that had been converted into a mobile car-bomb factory. "You got an ice cream truck, it's loaded with munitions, weapons, equipment to construct a car bomb," said a senior U.S. military official. 66 of the city's 133 mosques were discovered with significant quantities of weapons, and U.S. forces exchanged fire with snipers who took cover in minarets and inside the compounds. U.S. officials are processing a bounty of seized intelligence material, including telephone records of suspected insurgent group leaders and their contacts, ledgers of foreign fighters, and data on insurgents found on computer hard drives, compact discs, and other media. U.S. troops discovered several crude chemical laboratories, including caches of poisons, beakers, and protective gear including gas masks. Notes found in the labs indicated that rebels were conducting training and research on chemical weapons.