Insurgent Bunker Uncovered in Raid

U.S. forces in Al Anbar province, a longtime insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, have discovered an underground complex complete with weapons-filled rooms, a well-stocked kitchen, shower facilities and even air conditioning, the military reported Saturday.

The bunker complex, found in an old rock quarry north of the city of Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, is one of the most extensive facilities unearthed during the nearly 2-year insurgency, the military said in a statement. There was no indication of how recently the complex had been used by insurgents.

About 185 yards wide, 300 yards long, the series of underground rooms features “four fully furnished living spaces” plus rooms filled with weapons and ammunition, the statement said. The inventory included machine guns, mortars, rockets, black uniforms and masks, compasses, night vision goggles and fully charged cellphones, the military said.

In addition, 50 weapons and ammunition caches were uncovered in the last several days during sweeps of Al Anbar province, where the cities of Fallouja and Ramadi are located, the military said.

The bunker discovery sheds additional light on the tactics and logistics of Iraq’s insurgency, which has surged in the last month. More than 800 people have died in the onslaught, which has included more than 90 suicide bombings, since the new government was formed in late April.

Despite numerous setbacks, including the U.S.-led recapture of Fallouja from insurgents in November, the rebels have managed to adapt and continue their fight. The loss of Fallouja as a city-sized base of operations brought only a temporary respite in the attacks.

In March, Iraqi forces raided what they described as a large training camp on a patch of swampland near the city of Samarra, northwest of Baghdad, a possible indication that insurgents were shifting from urban strongholds to scattered rural camps similar to those run in Afghanistan by the Al Qaeda network.

Interior Ministry officials said at the time that the camp had maps on the walls and functioning computers. But conflicting reports quickly emerged indicating that the size of the facility had been exaggerated.

In Baghdad, Iraqi police and army forces continued their “Operation Lightning” sweeps. A Defense Ministry official said that raids Friday had turned up nearly 70 mortar shells along with rocket launchers, sniper rifles and a 250-pound bomb designed to be dropped from a plane.

In the northern battleground city of Mosul, U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested a suspected senior insurgent leader, Associated Press reported.

The Iraqi man, known as Mullah Mahdi, was detained along with five others, including his brother, after a brief skirmish with troops in eastern Mosul. He is suspected of involvement in a number of terrorist attacks carried out by the militant group Ansar al Sunna in the north.