Baghdad - US-led coalition forces found the second largest weapon cache ever discovered in Baghdad after a tip off from a volunteer security force, the US military said on Sunday. Weapons uncovered included "several different types of anti-tank mines, grenades and a large quantity of improvised explosive device- making material," a US military statement said.
The forces were tipped off by members of the Forsan al-Rafidayn, an Iraqi volunteer force in the western Baghdad district of Amerya where the cache was discovered on December 3.
The last time a cache of this size was found was in the same area in the summer following intense fighting between the US troops and al-Qaeda insurgents, according to the statement.
In another development, the head of the province council of Nineveh, survived an assassination attempt on Sunday, according to the Voices of Iraq news agency VOI.
A bomb targeting the motorcade of Hisham al-Hamdani exploded north of Mosul, 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, sources in the province council told VOI.
No further details were immediately available.
Security forces arrested seven al-Qaeda terrorist suspects south- east of Mosul on Saturday, VOI reported.
The detainees include a key al-Qaeda suspect, Rami al-Suri, who is a Syrian national, the commander of a Nineveh police unit, Gen Eid al-Namis, told VOI.
Light weapons and mortar shells were found in the house where they were captured.
The Syrian is now in US custody.
Nineveh has become a haven for al-Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents fleeing other provinces where security offensives were launched.
