The Atlanta Journal-Constitution December 22, 2004
Iraq attack blamed on suicide bomber
By George Edmonson
Washington --- Tuesday's blast at a U.S. military base in Iraq that killed 22 people appeared to be a suicide attack by someone wearing explosives, not a rocket or mortar as initially thought, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.
The announcement by Gen. Richard Myers raised questions about how the attacker infiltrated Forward Operating Base Marez, which is surrounded by blast walls and barbed wire and guarded by U.S. troops.
However, as in many other U.S. military facilities, Iraqis do a variety of jobs at the base near Mosul, including cleaning, cooking, construction and office duties.
Myers said at a Pentagon briefing the investigation was continuing into the identity of the suicide bomber and how he gained access to the base.
"I assure you that everything possible is being done to get to the bottom of what happened and to take the appropriate steps so we can prevent potential future attacks of this nature," he said.
Myers said that forensic experts had not found remnants of a rocket or an improvised explosive device among the debris at the dining hall tent.
The "device was apparently packed with metal pellets the size of BBs, which sprayed in every direction upon detonation," Bill Nemitz, a columnist with the Portland Press Herald who was with the Maine Army National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion, reported Wednesday. He said the information came from Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, a top commander at the base.
Metal pellets have been used in several suicide bombings. A suicide attack also would correspond to claims of responsibility by the terror group Ansar al-Sunnah, which referred to it as a martyrdom mission.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who also participated in the briefing, said providing protection for troops in Iraq was an "enormous challenge."
Infiltration has been a constant concern and threat for American forces since they captured Baghdad in April 2003. U.S. and Iraqi officials have acknowledged that the Iraqi police and other security agencies, including the Iraqi national guard, have been infiltrated by people sympathetic to the insurgents.
In October, two bombers detonated explosions in the Green Zone area of Baghdad, where the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government are based. On many bases, soldiers guard Iraqi workers as they perform their tasks.
John E. Pike, director of the Web site GlobalSecurity.org, said infiltration is nothing new for the American military.
"Infiltration was a terrible problem in Vietnam. We just never did come to terms with it," he said.
"It's going to take time to build up politically reliable security services" in Iraq, Pike said. "Somebody could start out politically reliable and then have their grandmother get kidnapped and be told, 'Here's what you have to do if you ever want to see her again.' "
On Wednesday, the military revised the figures of dead and injured in the blast but did not release the identities of service members, pending notification of relatives.
According to a statement from Baghdad, 13 U.S. military personnel were killed along with five U.S. civilians, three members of the Iraqi national guard and one unidentified person who was not a U.S. citizen. That person may have been the bomber.
The attack injured 69 people. Of those, 44 were service members, and 25 of them were treated and returned to duty Tuesday, the military said. Seven of the injured were identified as U.S. contractors, five were Defense Department civilian workers, 10 were contractors from outside Iraq, two were Iraqi civilians, and the nationality and occupation of one had not been determined.
Many of the injured were flown for treatment to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
Halliburton, a leading military contractor with a large work force in Iraq, said four employees of its KBR subsidiary were killed. They were identified as Leslie W. Davis, 53, of Magnolia, Texas; Anthony M. Stramiello Jr., 61, of Astoria, Ore.; Allen Smith, 45, of Rosharon, Texas; and Brett A. Hunter, 29, of Chickasaw, Ala.
Halliburton also said 16 employees were injured.
The shadowy group Ansar al-Sunnah, which translates roughly to "defenders of the tradition," was reported to have claimed responsibility for the attack. Believed to be an offshoot of the more widely known Ansar al-Islam terror group, Ansar al-Sunnah has taken responsibility for several brutal acts, including beheadings, suicide bombings and civilian ambushes.
In Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city and until recently a relatively calm area about 200 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. troops were out in force.
The Associated Press reported that one of its journalists in Mosul saw almost no cars or people on Mosul's streets Wednesday, and that even traffic police officers were not at major intersections as usual.
There was also little apparent sympathy for the dead Americans on the deserted streets, where hundreds of U.S. troops, backed up by armored vehicles and helicopters, blocked bridges and cordoned off Sunni Muslim areas.
"I wish that 2,000 U.S. soldiers were killed," Jamal Mahmoud, a trade union official, told the AP.
Izdihar Kamel, a civil servant, praised those who had carried out Tuesday's attack.
"It was a heroic operation," Kamel said to the AP. "This is jihad and he who carried out this attack is a hero."
Rumsfeld, noting that while Iraq was a "dangerous and unsettled situation," said hundreds of refugees were returning to the country each week.
"Why would they do this? What do they know?" Rumsfeld said. "Clearly, these refugees returning home see better days ahead."
Myers and Rumsfeld repeated their expectation that insurgents would step up the violence as Iraq's Jan. 30 election approached.
"Security for the elections is a top priority," Myers said. "Iraqi security forces will take the lead for election security."
--- Staff writer Larry Kaplow in Baghdad contributed to this article.
Copyright © 2004 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
