BAGHDAD – A unit of the 82nd Airborne Division (search) ran across a large cache of weapons just south of Baghdad on Tuesday during an early morning patrol, Fox News has learned.
• Video: 82nd Airborne Under Fire
Fox News' Mike Tobin, embedded with the division's Charlie ("C") Company of the One Panther Battalion (search), reported that paratroopers seized wire-guided TOW anti-tank missiles, FA7 anti-aircraft rockets, a recoilless rifle, bagfuls of various improvised explosive devices, home bomb-making equipment and other weapons.
Shortly after the discovery was made, the 82nd Airborne was fired upon at its forward operating base south of Baghdad, in another round of possible guerrilla warfare.
American troops couldn't see who was shooting at them, but forces responded by firing flares and scrambling the quick response team to locate the source of the hostility and eliminate the threat. They determined that three rounds were fired at 82nd Airborne troops.
No one was hurt or killed in the gunfire.
Tobin reported hearing a loud explosion and the sound of screeching metal during the battle, which lasted less than 30 minutes. A sizable crowd formed around the base after the gunfire, according to Tobin; troops were speaking to the people in Arabic.
There were no further details immediately available on the contents or significance of the weapons cache retrieved.
Fox News' Mike Tobin and Catherine Donaldson-Evans contributed to this report.
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