Merry Christmas to all my Bushite friends!
As you gather with your families for a splendid Christmas dinner, and quietly reflect on the birth of Christ and all that He brought to the world, you should be proud of all the blessings you have helped bestow on our great nation!
Merry Christmas and may God bless you all!
Pentagon officials: 22 killed in attack on U.S. base in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Multiple rounds hit a dining hall at a U.S. military base near Mosul on Tuesday, killing 22 people, including U.S. troops, members of the Iraqi national guard, and Iraqi civilians, Pentagon officials said.
Fifty-one people were wounded in the incident -- which occurred at noon (4 a.m. ET) as people ate lunch at Forward Operating Base Marez, the officials said.
No other details on the attack were immediately available.
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." (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)
Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force early Tuesday launched airstrikes on insurgents fighting American troops west of Baghdad in the town of Hit, a U.S. military spokesman said.
"At approximately 2 a.m. this morning [6 p.m. ET Monday], a U.S. Air Force aircraft, in support of troops in contact, engaged an enemy fighting position with precision weapons," said 1st Sgt. Steve Valley with the Combined Press Information Center.
No other information was immediately available.
Near Baiji, Iraq, on Tuesday, oil pipelines were reported on fire, sources from Northern Oil Company said. The cause of the fire was unknown, the sources said. The fires 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.
CNN's Karl Penhaul in Baghdad and Elaine Quijano and Mike Mount at the Pentagon contributed to this report.
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