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Photo: Iraqi Forces Seize Truck Fitted Out as Katyusha Rocket Launcher

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) announced on Sunday it had captured a flatbed truck in northern Baghdad that had been turned into a Katyusha rocket launcher.
Sputnik

According to the statement tweeted by the JOC, which oversees most of the Iraqi Army, the vehicle was discovered in the northern neighborhood of Rashidiya.

A photo of the truck given to Iraqi media shows what the JOC identified as a Kia Bongo cabover truck with four sets of five tubes stuffed with rockets, capable of being elevated and lowered.

​The JOC noted that while Iraqi forces approached the truck, two missiles fired “spontaneously” but “fell in a remote area without significant losses.”

​“Our forces were able to obtain important information that leads to the knowledge of those who carried out this terrorist act,” the JOC said. “We will inform you about the details if the intelligence mission is completed in pursuit of them, arresting them, and presenting them to the Iraqi judiciary to obtain their fair punishment according to the law.”

The JOC did not say to which group it believed the truck’s operators pledged allegiance.

Another Kia truck fitted for firing the unguided rockets was also found in Rashidiya in March, although the launch tubes were of a different design.

​US forces in Iraq are often subjected to bombardments by Katyusha-style weapons, which fire unguided rockets en masse. Two days ago, the joint Iraqi-US base at Camp Taji, just a few miles north of Rashidiya, came under attack by a similar weapon, if not the same truck. Other rocket attacks have targeted the US embassy in Baghdad, located inside the fortified “Green Zone.”
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