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"Syrian" bomber caught alive in Baghdad
A U.S. general says the one attacker captured alive in the suicide bombings that have killed 34 has a Syrian passport, fuelling suspicions that foreign fighters were behind a rising tide of violence. Brigadier General Mark Hertling of the U.S. Armyâs 1st Armoured Division said on Monday police shot and wounded the man when he got out of a car and tried to hurl a grenade at a Baghdad police station. The car carried three mortar rounds and was packed with TNT, he said."Heâs a foreign fighter. He had a Syrian passport and the policemen claim that as he was shot and fell that he said he was Syrian," Hertling told a news conference. "Iâm a Syrian fighter and Iâm here to liberate....Ouch!" Iraqâs Deputy Interior Minister Ahmad Ibrahim told the news conference the wounded attacker was now unconscious in hospital. Captured alive by Iraqi cops, excellent. Hertling said suicide attacks were not typical of supporters of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who have been blamed by the U.S. military for most of guerrilla attacks on its troops and other targets in postwar Iraq. Since Sammyâs local boys didnât want to die during the war, I didnât think too many would be signing up for a vest now. "There are indicators that certainly these attacks have a mode of operation of foreign fighters," Hertling said, adding that possible foreign links among the attackers would be investigated in the days to come. About time. Thirty-four people were killed, including eight police officers, in the suicide attacks on three other police stations and the Red Cross headquarters, Ibrahim said. Another 224 people were wounded, 65 of them police. One of the bombers, driving an Iraqi police car and wearing a police uniform, was admitted to a police compound before blowing himself and the station up, Hertling said. Iâll wager the Iraqi police are getting a little pissed off. He described the attacks as coordinated but said the coordination was not very sophisticated, extending no further than a decision by the various attackers to set off their bombs between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. "Thatâs not professional, itâs actually somewhat amateurish," Hertling said. There was no indication that Mondayâs bombings were related to a Sunday rocket attack on a fortified Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz was staying, Hertling said. A U.S. soldier was killed and 17 people were wounded in that attack, but Wolfowitz was unhurt. The rocket attack was a bit more sophisticated, but nothing you couldnât put together in a garage or small welding shop. Posted by: Steve 2003-10-27 |
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