The DOD today released a video taken by insurgents who were later captured. The nine minute video shows at least two rocket attacks against U.S. positions. One of those rocket attacks, on July 11th, killed a U.S. soldier.

What's so odd is that the second set of rockets appear to be U.S. or British. At least, all the identifying marks on them are in English. Can any one help identify these? UPDATE: Looks like these are Iranian missiles, just not 107mm. Bigger, 230mm. Possibly Iranian Oghab missiles.

I did a Google search and didn't find anything on the "M Rocket" or on the "FL1-A". And you'll notice that these rockets appear to have been made this year, 2007.

Are we looking at some of the vast quantities of ordinance that have recently been reported as missing? Were these insurgents using our own weapons against us?

UPDATE: Just to clarify, there is a news story running that a number of Iranian made 107mm rockets were found, that Matt at Blackfive cites in his post, as does SeeMonk in the comments. And BohicaTwentyTwo thinks they are of Chinese design, Type 63.

But I'm not sure if the stories that are being run aren't referring to the first set of rockets in the insurgent video. Here are a couple of vidcaps:

I'm also told in the comments that English isn't necessarily indicative of U.S. or British make. The Iranians, they say, also print in English for export. Update: I'm getting all sorts of advice that these are Iranian rockets, but just not 107mm. They are definitely not anything NATO uses.

I've posted the video as well as the story about how it was found below:

UPDATE: I've added video of an Apache AH-64 actually filming very same insurgents! I. Kid. You. Not. The dates, July 12th, and the location, FOB Hammer match up exactly.

Compare and contrast: our video vs. their video.

Apparently, this Apache was circling overhead even as they proudly filmed themselves. According to the DVIDS info that came with the video, the 34 rockets were disarmed before they were fired. FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq – Soldiers of the 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment conducted a raid, Aug. 6, in northeast Nahrawan, resulting in the discovery of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team’s most wanted insurgent.

According to Capt. Matthew Carman, of Allentown, Pa., battle captain for the 3rd HBCT, the insurgent was found hiding under a bed in a house adjacent to his own by Pfc. Doug Jones of the brigade’s Time Sensitive Target team.

After 3rd HBCT intelligence received information on the insurgent’s location, the TST team and Troop B, 3-1 Cav. moved to the target site on foot.

“The whole idea was to move covertly to the house so nobody would take off running,” Carman said. “They walked a significant distance to the house. Then they brought in the trucks.”

Jones said he was clearing the house of people before bringing in bomb searching dogs to the building. He searched a room that had already been searched once. While clearing closets, Jones said he saw one of the beds move.

“He must have been shivering a little because I saw the bed just barely move,” he said. “I thought it may have been a kid hiding because he was scared.”

Jones said he flipped the bed and still didn’t see anything because the insurgent was hiding between a bed and a wall. Jones saw the insurgent’s arm when he put the bed back down.

“I was smiling and I guess that made him smile because he smiled back up at me,” Jones explained. “I told him to stand up and then get on his knees. He smiled really big then, like he was happier about this than I was.”

Soldiers searched the entire house and found a video depicting insurgents preparing rockets to be launched against the 3rd HBCT’s main operating base. Video footage shows men setting up 49 rockets aimed at FOB Hammer, which were launched July 11, killing one Soldier and wounding 15. The video also shows the set-up and execution of an Aug. 5 rocket attack against FOB Hammer.

The unit detained nine individuals found inside the house, including the most wanted individual.

Source

Their video: