www.cnn.com More than 20 killed in attack on U.S. base in IraqIslamist Web sites post group's claim of responsibility
Tuesday, December 21, 2004 Posted: 12:41 PM EST (1741 GMT)
MOSUL, Iraq (CNN) -- More than 20 people, including Americans and Iraqis, were killed in an attack Tuesday on a U.S. base in Iraq, said Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of Task Force Olympia.
The attack wounded more than 60 people at the base near the northern city of Mosul -- Camp Marez, Ham said.
The dead include U.S. military personnel, U.S. contractors, foreign contractors and members of the Iraqi army, he said.
A breakdown of the casualties was not immediately available, and Ham said the nature of the attack -- a single, large explosion -- was unknown. An investigation is under way, the general said.
Jeremy Redmon, a Richmond, Virginia, Times-Dispatch reporter embedded with troops at the base, said the attack -- on a mess tent -- "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.
Pentagon officials said there are about 8,500 U.S. troops 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."
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.
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."