'Syrian' Bomber Caught Alive in Baghdad, U.S. Says
mark dameli | 29.10.2003 00:25 | Cambridge | London
'Syrian' Bomber Caught Alive in Baghdad, U.S. Says
27 October, 2003
Reuters
BAGHDAD - A U.S. general said the one attacker captured in the bombings that killed 34 Monday had a Syrian passport, fueling suspicions that foreign fighters were behind a rising tide of violence.
Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division said 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. "He's 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. Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Ahmad Ibrahim told the news conference the wounded attacker was now unconscious in hospital. 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.
"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.
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.
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.
"That's not professional, it's actually somewhat amateurish," Hertling said.
There was no indication that Monday's 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.
mark dameli
Comments
Hide the following 6 comments
Ok, I know, when I attack someone, I'll carry my passport with me!
29.10.2003 03:04
The same fate of Iraq mustn't happen to Syria or Iran!! The US may portray them as the axis of evil but tell us, which son of satan invaded Iraq illegally and in the process killing thousands upon thousands of innocent people. Which son of satan is investing in biochemical and nuclear technologies amongst others? I'll tell you which son of satan, it is of course George theW anker Bush!!
James Stewart
but of course- how could he possibly be an Iraqui !!!
29.10.2003 04:00
fact is that the pentagon and the capitol hill mafias are paniking at the thought that their own
american subjects might one day realise that most people in Iraq want the occupiers OUT !!!!!!
therefore.... the Syrian guy or the kidney pie or his majesty the queen of lickland ... anyone but the Iraquis :-))))))))
yankees_go_home
Foriegn fighters
29.10.2003 13:24
Are the brits or ukrainian forces there fighting on behalf of george dubyah
not foriengers or what about the US troops have they all taken Iraqi citizenship???
Are you saying the syrian is a suicide bomber ?How can you how can he commit suicide before he has taken that act?
Remember while the bush family was funding hitlers nazis many people from all over the world went to fight the facists in spain britian on its own was fighting the nazis after the fall of france and prescott bush was still funding the nazis until hitler declared war on the US.
Cpt Caveman
tick tock
29.10.2003 14:18
(or will they do Iran first?)
kurious
do they even know who they're fighting
29.10.2003 18:44
since the "end" of the war in may, approx. 180 days have gone by. it is reported that there are multiple attacks on u.s. occupation forces every day, not just the singular attacks in which soldiers are killed. to assume, or to publically assert that all of these attacks are carried out by, or led by, or planned by some spooky "foreign" influence is either completely stupid, or an intentional attempt to mislead.
either they don't know that a vast majority of these attacks are being carried by iraqi's themselves, and therefore they don't know their enemy, and are a hopeless bunch of tossers who will never successfully rebuild iraq because they haven't figured out the native people, or, they know exactly who's fighting them, but they want to put a spin on it, and try to say "well, it's not the iraqi's, they love us. instead it's the damned foreign terrorists from iran and syria".
there is so much hiding and machinating and spinning and misleading and disinforming going on in washington that it is impossible to tell if bush and his military is utterly clueless, or if they know exactly what is going on but don't want to tell anyone, or if everything is fine, or if it's all a fucking bad dream come true.
funny i should mention that riddle, because if the bush admin. SHOULD decide to go after syria, using the excuse of "syrian" "terrorists" who happen to carry their passports so they can be identified as syrian, well then i think that answers it, doesn't it? he is utterly insane, and he wants desperately to let the cat out of the bag and watch it all go bezerker in the middle east, in europe, and in america. which i can guarantee it will. want to see some massive and perhaps violent worldwide protests? or some increased terrorist activity against europe and america? wait until iran or syria gets invaded.
this thing here
syria a state of terror
30.10.2003 15:32
http://2la.org/act/
pete cody
Homepage: http://2la.org/act/