Arms finds in hitherto quiet south Iraq ring alarms

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces say they have found numerous caches of new weapons in the Shi'ite south, raising the possibility that an area which has been peaceful could relapse into violence before elections next year.

The discoveries of handguns, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, silencers, automatic weapons, roadside bombs and explosives suggest a recent spike in bloodshed from bombings in Baghdad and the north may soon be mirrored in Iraq's south.

The weapons are being stockpiled by Shi'ite political rivals of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, officials believe.

Some may be planning attacks across the south in order to damage Maliki's pre-election claim to having presided over a sharp drop in overall violence in Iraq, they said.

"We are always finding large amounts of ammunition, including rockets, IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) and sticky bombs. The last one was a week ago," Major Aziz al-Amarah, commander of a rapid response police force in the southern province of Wasit, told Reuters.

Amarah believed some of the weapons were made in Iran.

"Sometimes they try to remove labels that refer to Iran but we can make out the words from what is left," he said.

Tehran denies arming Iraqi militias from across its long and porous border with Iraq. Iraq has also struggled since the U.S. invasion to stem the entry of Sunni militants from Iraq's western neighbors.

Police said investigations showed Shi'ite militias were recruiting fighters in the run-up to elections in January.

"Their aims are to destroy the image of the prime minister, and pull the carpet from under his feet by making it impossible for him to claim he has succeeded in improving security," said one high-ranking police officer who asked not to be identified.

Iraq seemed to be on a path to greater stability as it regained some sovereignty more than six years after the U.S. invasion unleashed a wave of sectarian killings between once dominant Sunnis and majority Shi'ites.

But the country has been reeling from a series of bombings, mainly in and around the capital Baghdad, the troubled northern city of Mosul and western Anbar province, since U.S. troops pulled out of city centres at the end of June. These included truck bombs outside federal ministries that killed 95 people.

RECENT MANUFACTURE

The Shi'ite heartland in the south has been quiet, but there have been signs of growing insecurity. Bombs on two minibuses killed 12 people last week near the usually quiet town of Kut.

The recent manufacture of many of the weapons being found makes it seem likely they were acquired some time after a crackdown ordered by Maliki in the first half of 2008 against Shi'ite militia that then held sway in southern Iraq.

"All the manufacture dates are from 2007 and 2008 and the writing on the rockets is Persian," said a high-ranking military officer in Dhi Qar province who asked not to be named.

The U.S. military says Iranian meddling in Iraq appears to have eased recently and the flow of Sunni fighters from Syria has also slowed. But Iraq's borders remain unsecure.

"The border with Iran continues to be a problem, especially around the narrowest portions of the Shatt al-Arab waterway in southern Iraq," said Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Ali al-Khafaji. "If Iran wants to send weapons to Iraq, it can."

(Editing by Michael Christie and Angus MacSwan)