BAGHDAD ø The Iraqi National Guard has scored what officials termed a major success in the capture of a huge arms cache maintained by Sunni insurgents.

Officials said the arms cache found north of Baghdad contained a large amount of explosives used in car bombings around the Iraqi capital by the Tawhid and Jihad group, led by Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi. The cache also contained rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft shells.

"We found so many mortar rounds, it was just unreal," Staff Sgt. Ronald Denton, a U.S. Army adviser to the ING, said. "And the amount of [improvised explosive device]-making material, and the list just goes on."

[On Oct. 19, more than 100 people were said to have been killed in a mortar attack on an Iraqi National Guard base near Baghdad, Middle East Newsline reported. Reports said six mortars were fired toward the ING facility in Mashan.]

Officials said the capture of the weapons reflected the improvement by the ING in acquiring intelligence information. They said the ING has been significantly bolstered in the Baghdad area in the U.S.-led war against Sunni and Shi'ite insurgents.

Several weeks ago, officials said, the ING identified an Iraqi national said to have known of a large cache of weapons. But the Iraqi refused to cooperate with U.S. or Iraqi combat units.

At that point, the commander of the ING's 307th Battalion, Company D, identified only as Lt. Col. Walid, persuaded the Iraqi to provide the information. The ING then began to search the area near Taji ø on the northern outskirts of Baghdad ø for weapons.

Within a few days, the ING found more than 400 57 mm rockets, 7,275 rounds of 14.5 mm anti-aircraft ammunition, and one U.S. tube-launched optically tracked wire-guided [TOW] missile. The weapons and explosives were found in 12 sites in an area of several square kilometers in a joint effort with the U.S. Army's 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment.

"We would begin digging in a new area, and we just kept finding stuff," Capt. Mark Leslie, another U.S. Army adviser to the ING, said.

Officials said the weapons were believed to have come from arsenals of the former Saddam Hussein military. The arms included 12 SS-30 127 mm rockets with launchers as well as 20 rocket mortars. One site contained more than 60 kilograms of PE-4 explosive, used in car bombings by Al Zarqawi around Baghdad.

"Everything came together like it's supposed to on this operation," Leslie said. "Everybody worked together in a joint [operation] that should make residents of Camp Taji and Camp Anaconda sleep a little easier knowing we have denied the enemy these tools of destruction."

In Baghdad, the U.S. Army reported the capture of an insurgency cell leader on Monday. Officials said the insurgent recruited and organized mortar teams for attacks against Iraqi security forces and masterminded about 200 strikes against the army's 39th Brigade Combat Team since April 2004.

Officials said the unidentified Iraqi recruited insurgents from Faluja and represented one of several mortar cells in Baghdad.

He was said to have operated safe houses in the Baghdad neighborhoods of Damyia and Rusafa.

"He was bringing other teams in from Falujah in order to hit us simultaneously with mortars from two different locations," Platoon Sgt. Robert Fisher said. "He was the brain bringing them in and firing us up."