A month or so ago Rob made the assertion that the US was gathering
intelligence data and we would soon see the results of that work. In
addition, he bragged how the operation in Fallujah would have a big
impact on terrorism.
Rob, is this what you were expecting?
BAGHDAD (Dec. 13) -- A suicide car bomber killed at least seven
Iraqis outside Baghdad's government compound on Monday, a year to the
day since U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein.
Nineteen were wounded, four seriously, civilian hospital staff said.
The U.S. military said no U.S. soldiers were hurt in a bombing
claimed by al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
It came after seven Marines were killed on Sunday, the heaviest daily
toll since the end of their assault on Fallujah last month. There was
new fighting in the city on Monday.
Iraq's U.S.-backed interim president said insurgents were trying to
wreck next month's election and must be stopped. Ghazi Yawar warned
that the present chaos of the occupation could spawn an ''Iraqi
Hitler'' as people yearned for a return to order.
Scraps of wrecked cars hung in trees at the entrance to the Green
Zone government complex, once Saddam's presidential palace. It also
now houses the U.S. and other embassies.
''We had stopped in the car when all we felt was a car explode next
to us,'' said one injured Iraqi civilian at the city's busy Yarmuk
hospital, his face caked with blood.
AP
Although wounded, Staff Sgt. Shannon Kay, of 1st Battalion, 24th
Infantry Regiment, fires on an enemy position after being attacked
with a car bomb in Mosul.
Most of the victims were lining up to enter the area at the start of
the working day, when suicide bombers have struck the checkpoints
before. U.S. troops have died in such attacks. They have now handed
control of many external checkpoints to Iraqis.
Standing among bloodied casualties at the Yarmuk hospital, senior
doctor Sabah Aboud said he had received seven bodies and was treating
19 wounded. Four were in a serious condition.
''On this blessed day, a lion from the martyrs battalion struck a
group of apostates and Americans in the Green Zone,'' al-Zarqawi's al-
Qaida Organization for Holy War in Iraq said on a Web site. U.S.
officials say the Jordanian militant, their arch enemy in Iraq, fled
Fallujah before the assault began on Nov. 8.
MARINES KILLED
Al-Zarqawi's group made no mention of Saddam. U.S. officials believe
Islamists have, however, made common cause with secular nationalists
once loyal to Saddam to oppose the U.S. occupation.
On Dec. 13 last year, U.S. forces seized Saddam after eight months on
the run. President Bush and his generals said the deposed president's
arrest could puncture guerrilla activity among his supporters in the
Sunni Arab minority.
But violence has gone on unabated and the death rate among U.S.
troops has risen since a dishevelled Saddam was dragged from a
hideout dug in farmland near his home town of Tikrit.
Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, said he hoped Saddam would
stand trial, maybe in weeks, after the election.
The seven Marines were killed in two incidents on Sunday in Anbar
province, which includes Falluja and Ramadi. The military gave no
details. The last time there were as many U.S. deaths in a day was in
mid-November during the Falluja offensive.
Fighting continues in parts of the city, including some U.S. aerial
bombing. ''There is no telling at this time if it is fighters that
had eluded the (U.S.) forces to this point or if they are insurgents
that have found a way to get back into the city,'' Marine Captain
Brad Gordon said of the enemy.
Insurgents are also very active in Ramadi, to the west.
The Fallujah assault was meant to quell attacks in the run-up to the
Jan. 30 vote, which should benefit the long-oppressed Shiite majority
at the expense of Saddam's fellow Sunnis.
Sunni leaders failed to win a delay but complain that the election
will be skewed by violence in the Sunni north and west.
'IRAQI HITLER'
President Yawar, a Sunni tribal leader occupying a largely figurehead
post, told the BBC the bombers wanted to disrupt the vote: ''Their
tactical target is to undermine the electoral process and to stop us
having our first elections.
''This is why we see it is a challenge we have to meet.''
He called for stronger Iraqi forces, saying Washington had been wrong
to disband them after the war. Speaking to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper
he warned that continued mayhem and foreign occupation could see
Iraqis yearning for a strong hand.
''This could in the long term create an environment in which an Iraqi
Hitler could emerge like the one created by the defeat of Germany and
the humiliation of Germans in World War One.''
Though few have mourned Saddam's downfall, some Iraqis say his
authoritarian rule overcame ethnic and religious divides.
At least 1,015 U.S. troops have been killed in action since the
invasion of Iraq 21 months ago. In all, 1,290 have died.
At Tarmiya, north of Baghdad, a car bomb wrecked two U.S. Humvees,
wounding three Americans and an Iraqi, the military said. Two Iraqi
National Guards were killed and five wounded in a gunfight at nearby
Dijail, a Guard officer said. Further north, at Samarra, police said
three children were killed in crossfire when U.S. and Iraqi forces
clashed with gunmen.
In Mosul, witnesses said a car bomb targeted a U.S. convoy.
A National Guard was killed and two wounded when gunmen fired on a
checkpoint near Iskandariya. At nearby Mahmudiya, just south of
Baghdad, Iraqi police and Guards fought off a rebel attack on a
police station on Sunday, a U.S. officer said.
Some of Saddam's old lieutenants went on what their lawyers called a
hunger strike. The U.S. military said eight detainees had refused
breakfast on Monday -- but then ate around 11 a.m.
12/14/04 1106 EST
Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited