By 
Posted by Ars Technic on March 02, 2020 05:00:53A team of armed civilians on a remote military outpost have discovered a trove of weapons that the military has illegally stockpiled.
The incident occurred in April 2016 when the military stationed at the Camp Bucca military base in the south of Iraq began a routine training exercise with a small group of armed men.
“I was told there would be an ambush,” the unnamed soldier told The Associated Press.
“The people were all very respectful.
I was told to get ready, get dressed and leave.
I went out and went to my tent.
It was very quiet, but there were soldiers there.
I saw them, and they took my gun.
I took it out and started firing.”
The soldier told the AP he did not know why the soldiers had started firing.
The military has not commented publicly on the incident.
The AP obtained an audio recording of the ambush.
It shows two of the men speaking in a commanding tone.
One of the two men says, “You’ll never have to worry about this.
We’re going to win.”
The military says the soldiers were armed with .50-caliber machine guns and machine pistols and that they also carried automatic rifles.
One man, who spoke to AP through a translator, said they were carrying “two Kalashnikov rifles, and one Glock 17 pistol.”
The military denied any weapons were present.
“The only way to defeat these men is with the same weapons that they use to kill,” Maj. Gen. Mark Martins, the commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq, told reporters in an interview in Washington.
“They are the enemy.
They are the problem.
They will be defeated.”
Martins said the U-turn came after the soldiers noticed that the men were armed.
The AP found a video posted online that shows two U.K. soldiers wearing body armor and wearing camouflage uniforms firing at a group of people.
The video, which is believed to have been shot in the days after the attack, shows the men holding up two weapons.
One appears to be a rifle, while the other appears to have a grenade launcher.
A U.N. report on the attack says the men had fired “at least 30 rounds of bullets at a number of the people, causing at least six injuries.”
“The men then returned fire, striking several people, including the wounded,” the report said.
Martins denied any wrongdoing.
“If we are found guilty of any wrongdoing, we will be held accountable for it,” he said.