The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 15, 2003, Page 5, Image 5
U.S. Army
soldiers
walk
through
the
wreckage
of the
second
suicide car
bomb in
three days,
which
exploded In
front of the
Turkish
Embassy In
Baghdad,
Iraq, on
Oct. 14.
Two
people,
Including
the driver,
were
reported
killed, and
several
bystanders
and
passengers
on a bus
following
the car
were also
injured.
PHOTO
COURTESY OF
KRT CAMPUS
BY CHARLES J. HANLEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, IRAQ -Suicide car
bombers struck in Baghdad for the
third time in a week Tuesday, this
time outside the Turkish Embassy
in yet another blow against those
who would help the U.S. occupa
tion. Witnesses said the driver and
a bystander were killed, and hospi
^ tals said at least 13 were wounded.
^ “This is the act of those who
want to turn Iraq into a terror par
adise,” said Turkish Ambassador
Osman Paksut, whose govern
ment has offered peacekeeping
troops to reinforce the U.S. mili
tary presence here, a move strong
ly opposed by Iraqis.
Just who is behind the bomb
ings remained a mystery, al
though Iraqis converging on the
scene Tuesday began chanting
pro-Saddam Hussein slogans.
Mucn ot tne blast was absorbed
by concrete barriers outside the
embassy, U.S. officials said. The
bomber might have caught U.S.
troops if he had struck last week
end, when they were deployed out
side the mission in northwest
Baghdad, apparently because of a
threat.
“About three days ago, we re
ceived indications that there might
be increased danger on the Turkish
Embassy,” said Col. Peter Mansoor
of the U.S. 1st Armored Division.
“We revved up security measures
based on those indications.”
He said the FBI and Iraqi police
were investigating. Similar in
vestigations of seven other vehi
cle bombings, killing more than
140 people across Iraq beginning
in August, have made no known
breakthroughs.
In the southern city of Karbala,
gunmen of rival Shiite Muslim fac
», tions clashed and witnesses €aid
several people were killed or in
jured. It appeared to be part of a
power struggle between forces of
the firebrand cleric Muqtada al
Sadr and followers of religious
leaders who take a more moderate
stand toward the U.S. occupation.
Farther south, at his headquar
ters in Najaf, al-Sadr demanded
the Americans set a timetable for
withdrawal. “Whoever cooperates
with the occupation forces is not
a Shiite. Indeed, they are not
Muslims,” he said.
Pentagon officials said tne u .t>.
military is concerned about al
Sadr but is uncertain whether he
poses a significant threat. The of
ficials, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said they remain com
mitted to disarming militias but
declined to say whether they
^ planned to confront his followers.
™ In other developments
Tuesday:
♦ A spokeswoman for the U.S.
4th Infantry Division, Maj. Josslyn
Aberle, said the military did not
have any reports that Saddam was
hiding in his hometown of Tikrit.
This countered a statement
Monday by a 4th ID officer that the
deposed president was recently in
the area.
♦ In central Iraq’s Sunni
Muslim heartland, 100 people
gathered at the main mosque in
Fjdlujah to demand release of a
cleric arrested Monday by U.S.
troops. Sheik Jamal Shaker
Nazzal is an outspoken opponent
of the American occupation.
♦ The U.S. commerce secretary,
Don Evans, delivered an upbeat
message at a Baghdad news con
ference, saying, “We need to con
tinue to focus on moving the en
tire country and region toward a
more secure, hopeful and pros
perous country and region.” He
said he had seen “endless suc
cesses” in Iraq, citing restoration
of electrical power and reopening
of schools and hospitals.
Tuesday’s attack was the third
car bombing since Thursday,
when a driver detonated his vehi
cle in a police station courtyard in
Baghdad, killing himself and nine
others. On Sunday, a suicide
bombing killed eight near the
Baghdad Hotel, home to U.S. and
Iraqi officials.
The string of attacks began in
August with bombings at the
Jordanian Embassy and the U.N.
headquarters. All the targets have
been institutions perceived as co
operating with the U.S. occupation.
The Turkish Embassy blast
happened at about 2:45 p.m. as traf
fic streamed by the compound in
the quiet, middle-class Waziriyah
district.
“I was in a building across the
street. I rushed over and saw that
a car had exploded in front of the
embassy,” said Ahmed Hashim,
30, a graduate' student at
Mustansiryah University. He said
the suicide driver’s dismembered
body was blown down the avenue,
and a second person was also dead
at the scene.
“I know that because I helped
carry him into the ambulance.”
Hashim said. This was not imme
diately confirmed by U.S. or Iraqi
authorities, but a painting con
tractor at the scene, Salah
Khadhim, also said he saw a pass
er-by killed.
Mansoor, the American
colonel, reported only the driver
killed and two embassy workers
injured. But officials at two hospi
tals said they received at least 13
wounded from the blast, including
three seriously injured.
After the explosion, about 50
Iraqis gathered and chanted a pro
Saddam slogan - “We sacrifice our
blood and soul for you!” - and wav
ing Iraqi banknotes with the oust
ed dictator’s portrait. Police fired
in the air to disperse them, and de
tained severed.
Popular suspicions in the
bombings have focused on
Saddam supporters, also blamed
for repeated attacks on American
troops, or on al-Qaida adherents
or other Muslim extremists.
Asked whether the bombing
was related to the issue of Turkish
peacekeepers in Iraq, Mansoor
said: “I think it has everything to
do with that.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
An Iraqi man injured in a suicide car bomb talks with a U.S.
soldier in front of the Turkish embassy In Baghdad, Iraq.
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