A U.S.-led raid last Saturday on a large bomb-making factory in Mosul, Iraq, revealed an example of how al Qaeda has set up a sophisticated armament industry inside Iraq that supplies a steady supply of explosive to suicide bombers.
The complex consisted of three buildings,each used for a specific task necessary to produce improvised explosive devices (IEDs), according to an internal U.S. command briefing document provided to The Examiner.
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At one building, bombs were made. At another, explosives were fitted into vehicles. The third building was a storage site for chemicals and electronics. The three buildings were connected by tunnels, allowing al Qaeda bomb-makers to secretly move about.
“This shows that al Qaeda has sophisticated and deep-pocketed support to assemble clandestine facilities for making vehicle IEDs for mass murder,” said retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, a military analyst.
A tip from a local Iraqi led the command to place the complex under surveillance and then conduct a joint U.S.-Iraqi raid in the country’s third-largest city. The military detained 32 suspects, seized huge quantities of explosives and destroyed the complex with air strikes and demolition, the briefing said.
“Mosul is a gateway city for transportation from the northern areas of Iraq to the rest of the country,” the document states. “Its geographic location makes it ideal for foreign terrorists entering a northern border to congregate, acquire their tools of destruction and then transit their final targets.”
Among the equipment seized during the raid were two dump trucks being fitted with bombs.
“Heavy trucks have emerged as a vehicle of choice for car bombs because of their ability to carry a heavy payload,” the briefing says.
IEDs such as the ones made in Mosul are the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said 70 percent of troops killed by hostile fire were victims of IEDs. They are also the favorite al Qaeda weapon to kill scores of innocent Iraqis at mosques, markets and other public places.
The Mosul raid represents a key objective of the command’s four-month-old campaign to secure greater Baghdad: diminishing the threat of roadside, vehicle and human-vest bombs by destroying them at the source.
“The elimination of car bomb factories is a key objective,” Maginnis said. “Our forces have launched operations throughout Baghdad’s suburbs to pinpoint and then destroy such factories before more innocent Iraqis and coalition forces fall victim.”
