BAGHDAD, April 9 (Reuters) - U.S. troops destroyed an al Qaeda training camp north of Baghdad last week that contained a large weapons cache of missiles, machine guns and mortar rounds, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

A U.S. Special Forces team descended on the camp in the town of Balad, in Salahuddin province, after intelligence reports suggested an old radar station was being used by insurgents, the military said in a statement.

They found a cache that included more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition, surface-to-air missiles, machine guns, rockets, suicide-vest charges, mortar rounds, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and warheads, the statement said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched several operations this year in Salahuddin and other northern provinces, where Sunni Islamist al Qaeda has regrouped after being pushed out of western Anbar province and Baghdad.

General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told Congress on Tuesday the threat posed by al Qaeda in the country had been reduced significantly, partly because thousands of Sunni Arabs had turned against the group because of its indiscriminate killings.

In its statement, the U.S. military said air strikes destroyed the compound and the weapons were taken away or destroyed. The operation was conducted from April 2-5. (Writing by Noah Barkin)

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