Another one for your "the world is better off w/o Saddam" file

[DEMON CUNT]

Attack on U.S. Base in Iraq Kills 22
By Maher al-Thanoon

MOSUL (Reuters) - A mortar and rocket attack on a U.S. military base in the Iraqi city of Mosul killed at least 22 people and wounded more than 50 on Tuesday in one of the most deadly attacks on U.S. forces since last year's invasion.

More... (http://reuters.myway.com/article/20041221/2004-12-21T151804Z_01_N21420908_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-IRAQ-DC.html)

Once again, IF YOU VOTED FOR BUSH YOU VOTED FOR MORE OF THIS!

[Nickdfresh]

24 dead in attack on U.S. base in Iraq
Islamist Web sites post group's claim of responsibility
Tuesday, December 21, 2004 Posted: 2:14 PM EST (1914 GMT)


MOSUL, Iraq (CNN) -- A lunchtime attack on a U.S. military mess hall in northern Iraq on Tuesday killed 24 people, including Americans and Iraqis, said Lt. Col. Paul Hastings at Camp Marez.

Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of Task Force Olympia in Mosul, said the attack -- a large, single explosion -- wounded more than 60 people.

The dead include U.S. military personnel, U.S. contractors, foreign contractors and members of the Iraqi army, Ham said.

A breakdown of the casualties was not immediately available, and Ham said the incident was being investigated.

Jeremy Redmon, a Richmond, Virginia, Times-Dispatch reporter embedded with troops at the base, said the attack "knocked soldiers off their feet and out of their seats," The Associated Press reported. (Full story)

Members of the Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion were among hundreds of people inside the tent, according to the AP.

Islamist Web sites posted a claim of responsibility from a group calling itself Jaish Ansar Al-Sunnah for an attack on "a joint US-Iraqi Ghazlani camp near Mosul at 12 noon Tuesday 21/12/2004." The Associated Press said local Iraqis refer to the camp similarly.

The message said that after the attack, "two helicopters were on the scene to airlift the killed and wounded." The message said the group shot video of the operation to be released later.

CNN could not confirm the authenticity of the claim.

During a White House briefing following Tuesday's attack, spokesman Scott McClellan said President Bush "mourns the loss of life and prays for the families of those who were killed. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families."

CNN personnel who have visited the base said the dining area is a tent-like facility with no hardened protection -- and that soldiers had specifically raised concerns that they could be targeted by insurgents at meal time.

One had told CNN it was only a matter of time before there was an attack on the mess hall.

Lt. Col. Hastings said: "There is a level of vulnerability when you go in there, and you don't feel like there's a hard roof over your head. And when there's mortar attacks and explosions that happen, there is a level of vulnerability."

Overall the base has good protection, Hastings said, and a new dining facility is under construction.

Pentagon officials said about 8,500 U.S. troops are in the Mosul area, 3,500 of them from a Stryker Brigade based in Fort Lewis, Washington.

Mosul has been a site of repeated attacks in recent weeks. When the U.S. military launched a major offensive in Falluja in November, there was concern some insurgents had fled to Mosul and would launch attacks from there. The U.S. military recently conducted an offensive to try to flush out insurgents in Mosul, but the violence has continued.

Tuesday's attack came shortly after British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Baghdad on a surprise visit to Iraq.

During a news conference with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, Blair called the insurgency "a battle between democracy and terror," in advance of Iraqi elections set for January 30.

"On the one side you have people who desperately want to make the democratic process work ... and on the other side, people who are killing and intimidating and trying to destroy a better future for Iraq." (Full story)

Iraqi voters are expected to choose a 275-member transitional national assembly. That body will put together a permanent constitution that will go before voters in a referendum. If the law is approved, there will be elections for a permanent government by the end of next year.

On Sunday, nearly 70 people died in car bomb attacks in the Shiite Muslim holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. (Full story)

During a Monday news conference in Washington, President Bush said "terrorists will attempt to delay the elections, to intimidate people in their country, to disrupt the democratic process in any way they can."

Still, he added, "I'm confident that terrorists will fail, the elections will go forward and Iraq will be a democracy that reflects the values and traditions of its people." (Full story)

Other developments

The French Foreign Ministry has confirmed that two French journalists held hostage by an Iraqi insurgency group since August have been released. A group known as the Islamic Army in Iraq said Tuesday it had delivered the two to the French Embassy in Baghdad, the Arab-language television network Al-Jazeera reported. (Full story)


Oil pipelines were on fire Tuesday near Baiji, Iraq, the Northern Oil Co. said. The cause of the fires was unknown. The blazes are near portions of pipelines that were damaged by saboteurs two days ago. The burning pipelines intersect the Ceyhan export line and a domestic line and carry oil from the Kirkuk oil fields.


The U.S. Air Force early Tuesday launched airstrikes on insurgents fighting American troops west of Baghdad in the town of Hit, said 1st Sgt. Steve Valley with the Combined Press Information Center. No other information was immediately available.

CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad and Elaine Quijano and Mike Mount at the Pentagon contributed to this report.


Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. troops help a wounded comrade after an attack on a dining facility at a base near Mosul, Iraq.
Image:

[Nickdfresh]

@

[Nickdfresh]

CNN personnel who have visited the base said the dining area is a tent-like facility with no hardened protection -- and that soldiers had specifically raised concerns that they could be targeted by insurgents at meal time.

Gee? I guess even mess halls are unarmored these days! Maybe this will fix the problem. How competent the High Command is these days!

[Guitar Shark]

What a tragedy. I thought Bush said the mission was accomplished? :rolleyes:

[lucky wilbury]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
Gee? I guess even mess halls are unarmored these days! Maybe this will fix the problem. How competent the High Command is these days!

before you comment read your own article:

Overall the base has good protection, Hastings said, and a new dining facility is under construction.

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
Gee? I guess even mess halls are unarmored these days! Maybe this will fix the problem. How competent the High Command is these days!


Rummy was quoted as saying

Sometimes you go to lunch with the protection you have, not the protection you may wish to have, besides, you could have a hard roof and still be blown up by a bomb.

THIS IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE LEADING UP THE THE "ELECTION"

Why do such good men and women have to die for such ugly reasons brought on by ugly leaders?

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by lucky wilbury
before you comment read your own article:

Overall the base has good protection, Hastings said, and a new dining facility is under construction.

I noticed that. But it's funny how they only listen to the soldiers when there is a tragedy. You're getting picky Agent Zimmerman!

[Nickdfresh]

Death toll revised down:

U.S. military officials, revising the death toll in a rocket attack on a mess tent in northern Iraq, now say that 14 soldiers, four U.S. contractors and four Iraqi security personnel were killed. The attack on the military base in Mosul came as the mess tent was packed with soldiers at lunchtime. Soldiers had raised concerns that they could be targeted at meal time.

Full:

[lucky wilbury]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=351870&page=1

Report: Mosul Attack Was a Suicide Bombing
Investigators Say Deadly Mess Tent Blast Was a Suicide Attack

Dec. 22, 2004 -- New evidence shows the bombing of a U.S. military mess tent in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday — which killed 22 people and wounded more than 70 others — was a suicide attack, ABC News has learned.

Investigators at the base have found remnants of a torso and a suicide vest that was probably a backpack, sources told ABC News, indicating that the attack was a suicide bombing.

The bombing at the mess tent at Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul was one of the deadliest attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq since the start of the war. Early reports indicated that the massive explosion might have been the result of a rocket attack.

But a radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, later claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was a "martyrdom operation," a reference to a suicide bomber.

A day after the devastating attack, another message posted on a Web site, allegedly by Ansar al-Sunnah, provided details of the daring attack. According to the online message, the suicide bomber was a 24-year-old man from Mosul who worked at the base for two months and had provided information about the base to the group.

The base, also known as the al-Ghizlani military camp, is about three miles south of Mosul and is used by both U.S. troops and the interim Iraqi government's security forces. It once was Mosul's civilian airport but is now a heavily fortified area.


Security Issues Arise

The deadly attack in the middle of a U.S. military base has led to questions about security at the facility in Mosul, a northern Iraqi city that has seen an increase in insurgent attacks since the U.S. military assault on Fallujah last month.

U.S. military officials say there were plans to build a bunker-like mess hall at the base. Although dining halls at bases have been the target of mortar attacks across central Iraq in the past, there are growing indications that Tuesday's attack might have been an "inside job."

According to the online message, the suicide bomber used plastic explosives hidden inside his clothes. The "martyr" had gotten married about a month ago, the message said.

It also claimed the group would post a video of the attack on the Web. The authenticity of the message, however, has not been verified.

A day after the attack, a group of U.S. soldiers wounded in insurgent attacks arrived at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany for treatment at a military hospital.

A C-140 transport plane carrying some 50 patients — most of them injured in Tuesday's attack — touched down at the U.S. base in Germany. A spokeswoman for the Landstuhl Regional Medical told The Associated Press that the medical facility was expecting at least eight critical care patients in the group.

Tuesday's attack claimed the lives of 14 U.S. service members, four U.S. civilian contractors and four Iraqis.

U.S. Military Imposes Curfew in Mosul

In Mosul today, U.S. tanks and armored vehicles swept through the streets as a curfew was imposed on Iraq's third-largest city. The governor of Mosul today banned the use of all five bridges into the city, and said anyone breaking the order would be shot, according to Reuters.

Once a relatively peaceful city of Kurdish and Arab residents, Mosul was ranked as the U.S. military's greatest success story in the early days of the Iraq occupation. But just days after a massive U.S. operation in Fallujah began last month, insurgents carried out a number of deadly attacks on police stations across the city.

U.S. military officials believe many insurgents hiding in Fallujah before the assault — including Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — may have fled to Mosul.