TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops detained four suspected high-level Baath party members and a former
Republican Guard officer involved in arms sales to insurgents, the military reported Monday.
A total of 19 suspects were detained in four separate raids and a huge weapons cache was uncovered
in one location, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman for Fort Hood's 4th Infantry Division in Central
Texas, which controls a large swathe of northern Iraq, based in Tikrit.
Of the suspects, four turned out to be high-level Baath party members and another was a former
Republican Guard special forces officer believed involved in arms sales to anti-coalition forces,
according to Aberle.
Three other suspects were implicated in mortar attacks on U.S. troops in the Balad area, between
Baghdad and Tikrit, about 120 miles north of the capital.
Also, U.S. troops acting on a tip from an Iraqi informer discovered a huge weapons cache in Taji, just
north of Baghdad, Aberle said.
The cache included over 100 artillery shells, dozens of mortar rounds, 15 rocket propelled grenade
launchers, Kalashnikov rifles and machine guns. In the area around one house at the raid site, a
waterpipe was found stuffed with grenades and artillery shells.
"It was a good find, lots of IED material off the streets," Aberle said, referring to improvised explosive
devices that are frequently used in attacks against U.S. troops.
A separate raid near Kirkuk, a town in northern Iraq, uncovered eight 120 mm rockets, over two dozen
mortar rounds and mortar tubes.
Also, in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, U.S. soldiers found 28 blocks of plastic explosives inside
the town's provincial government building. The explosives were not rigged to detonate and investigation
is ongoing to determine their source, Aberle said.
