US stepping up anti-Iran rhetoric

27/02/2007| IslamWeb

US troops yesterday showed off an arsenal of components for sophisticated roadside bombs found buried in a palm grove in a Shi'ite village northeast of Baghdad, saying it included Iranian-made rockets and mortars. Military officials said the cache was the largest of its kind to be found north of Baghdad and was more proof that militants were using weapons from Iran to fight US forces.

It also was the first factory uncovered in the area for assembling so-called EFPs - explosively formed projectiles - that fire a slug of molten metal capable of penetrating armoured vehicles.

Among the parts found during a raid after a tip-off from an Iraqi informant were 120mm mortars and 122mm rockets that the military said were made in Iran, although the troops declined to link them to any government activity. Markings indicated they were made in 2002 and 2006, which would rule out that they were leftovers from the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.

PHOTO CAPTION

U.S. President George W. Bush holds a news conference at the White House in Washington, February 14, 2007. (Reuters)

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