Capturing Saddam hasn't made a difference. Perhaps Bush should look in the Lincoln bedroom for guest, bin Laden: U.S. military says truck explodes in collision in Baghdad, killing at least 10
CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer Wednesday, December 17, 2003
(12-17) 10:16 PST BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --
A fuel tanker exploded after a collision in a Baghdad intersection, killing at least 10 Iraqis, U.S. military officials said. They said the blast was an accident, not an attack.
Earlier, Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Kadhim Ibrahim said the truck was packed with explosives and the intended target was a police station.
But after U.S. experts investigated, Capt. Jason Beck of the 1st Armored Division, which oversees security in Baghdad, said: "It was a fuel truck that had a traffic accident, caught fire and exploded. ... There was no evidence of a bomb."
Military explosives experts concluded the blast was accidental after conducting crater analysis and other tests at the site, Beck said. In Washington, a senior Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity that it was an accident.
North of Baghdad, U.S. forces launched a major sweep in the town of Samarra, breaking down doors and searching shops for pro-Saddam Hussein guerrillas in an effort to stamp out the insurgency in the area, which has seen a number of ambushes on U.S. forces.
The coalition scored a major victory Saturday by nabbing Saddam, who Iraqi officials revealed Wednesday was being held in the Baghdad area. But violence has continued in the capital and in predominantly Sunni areas west and north of Baghdad, once Saddam's power base. In the northern city of Mosul, assailants shot and killed a policeman Wednesday, police said. And Iraqi security forces there opened fire on pro-Saddam protesters, injuring nine, witnesses said.
The truck explosion in al-Bayaa, a poor district in southwestern Baghdad, raised immediate suspicions of a new suicide attack after several in the capital and elsewhere since Saddam was seized.
The truck collided with a bus not far from a police station that has been attacked in the past. The resulting explosion wounded 20 people, hospital officials said. The charred, crumpled bus lay in the intersection, and body parts were scattered in the area. Two nearby cars were destroyed.
In Wednesday's raid, dubbed Operation Ivy Blizzard, the 4th Infantry Division and Iraqi forces detained at least a dozen people in Samarra, which in recent weeks has emerged as center of anti-U.S. attacks in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" north and west of the capital.
Backed by armored vehicles and Apache helicopters, U.S. troops conducted door-to-door searches in the predominantly Sunni town of 200,000 people.
"Samarra has been a little bit of a thorn in our side," said U.S. Army Col. Nate Sassaman. "It hasn't come along as quickly as other cities in the rebuilding of Iraq. This operation is designed to bring them up to speed."
Sassaman's deputy, Capt. Matthew Cunningham, said Samarra has a core of about 1,500 fighters.
On Tuesday, U.S. troops captured a leading guerrilla, Qais Hattam, and 78 others in a nearby village. Maj. Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry, said all those captured in the raid were in one room and apparently conducting a meeting to plan future attacks. The night before, guerrillas ambushed a U.S. patrol in Samarra, sparking a gunbattle in which 11 of the attackers were killed.
Meanwhile, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council said the U.S. military is holding Saddam in the Baghdad area. U.S. officials have previously said the former dictator was at an undisclosed location in Iraq.
"He is still in greater Baghdad," said council member Mouwafak al-Rubaie. "Maybe he will stay there until he stands trial."
Al-Rubaie spoke at a news conference where council members issued a statement asking for Iraqis to seek reconciliation following Saddam's capture. The council has established a war crimes tribunal and hope to put him on trial for human rights abuses.
Council member Adnan Pachachi said "all stages of the trial will be public." He added that international experts "are always welcome" because the tribunal allows for the appointment of foreign judges.
Saddam's capture sparked an outpouring of anger in Sunni Triangle cities Monday and Tuesday, with loyalists storming the office of a U.S.-backed mayor in Fallujah and clashing with American troops in Ramadi. On Tuesday, a pro-Saddam demonstration in Mosul ended in violence, with a policeman killed and a second injured.
A roadside bomb wounded three American soldiers in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.
President Bush said Saddam deserved the "ultimate penalty" but it would be up to the people of Iraq to decide whether he should be executed. In an interview with ABC News, the president also said Iraqis are "capable of conducting the trial themselves."
The United Nations, the Vatican and many countries oppose putting Saddam on trial before any court that could sentence him to death.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, said Tuesday in Baghdad that military planners were preparing for U.S. troops to stay in Iraq for up to two more years. |
