Saleh Al-Shamiri, the police chief in Azizya, 80 kilometres southeast of Baghdad, announced on Friday that more than 300 mortars and explosives used in roadside bombs were discovered in the military centre.
Al-Shamiri said that the explosives had been recently brought to the centre.
Roadside bombs are the number one killer of Coalition troops in Iraq. U.S. and British military and intelligence officials have told journalists that large shipments of high explosives have been smuggled into north-eastern and southern Iraq from Iran. These “shaped charges” are especially lethal because they are designed to concentrate and direct a more powerful blast into a small area.
American and British Intelligence officials believe the high-explosives have been shipped into Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards with the full consent of the Iranian government.
