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18 US Soldiers Killed in Mosul Attack
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US
workers and soldiers carrying the wounded in the wake of the
attack
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BAGHDAD,
December 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In one of the
serious blows to the US occupation military in Iraq, more than people
were killed, including at least 18 US soldiers, in a rocket attack
Tuesday, December 21, on a dining hall at a US base in the northern
city of Mosul, the BBC television reported.
“More
than 20 have been killed and more than 60 wounded,” Brigadier
General Carter Ham, the US-led occupation commander for the Mosul
area, told the British broadcaster.
“The
killed include US military personnel, US contractors, foreign national
contractors and Iraqi army,” he added. “It is indeed a very, very
sad day.”
The
Associated Press put the death toll at 24, including seven workers for
US oil giant Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary.
An
embedded reporter from the Richmond-Times Dispatch described the scene
of the attack at the Mosul base as soldiers sat down for lunch and
were suddenly hammered in a rocket attack.
“The
force of the explosions knocked soldiers off their feet and out of
their seats. A fireball enveloped the top of the tent, and shrapnel
sprayed into the men,” journalist Jeremy Redmon told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
“Amid
the screaming and thick smoke that followed, quick-thinking soldiers
turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and
gently carried them into the parking lot. 'Medic! Medic!. soldiers
shouted,” he told AFP.
The
attack was immediately claimed by Al-Qaeda linked Ansar Al-Sunna.
“One
of the mujahedeen of the Army of Ansar Al-Sunna carried out a
martyrdom operation in a restaurant of the occupation forces at the
Ghazlani camp in Mosul,” the group said in a statement carried by
AFP.
Mosul,
370 kilometers (250 miles) north of Baghdad, has been transformed
into a battleground between resistance fighters and US
occupation troops.
The
city was the site of almost daily assassination attempts on suspected
US collaborators before the city boiled over in violence last month.
The
US military has been making incursions into the city, Iraq's third
largest city, since coordinated attacks by fighters and armed groups
on police stations prompted most of the local police force to quit on
November 11.
Around
80 bodies have been found in and around Mosul since the beginning of
December, most of which authorities say belong to security forces
executed by unknown people, according to an AFP count.
Bush
Condemns
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US
soldiers tend to a colleague critically injured in the attack
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The
attack was swiftly condemned by US President George W. Bush who said
it was aimed at derailing the transition to democracy in Iraq.
“The
president mourns the loss of life and prays for the families of those
who were killed. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and
their families,” AFP quoted White House spokesman Scott McClellan as
saying.
“The
terrorists and Saddam loyalists are desperately seeking to derail the
transition to democracy and freedom in Iraq. The enemies of freedom
understand the stakes involved.”
“They
will be defeated and a free and peaceful Iraq will emerge. When it
does, it will be a major blow to their ambitions and the ambitions of
those who espouse hatred,” McClellan added.
Britain’s
The Independent newspaper reported on Sunday, December 19, that the
prevailing state of insecurity in Iraq would make the January 30
elections the “most
secretive” in history.
“Iraqi
television shows only the feet of election officials rather than their
faces, because they are terrified of their identity being revealed. It
will be a poll governed by fear,” the leading British daily
commented.
The
Iraqi voters will choose a 275-member assembly on January 30, which
will write a permanent constitution.
If
adopted in a referendum next year, the constitution would form the
legal basis for another general elections to be held by December,
2005.
On
Sunday, two
car bombs killed at least 62 people in the two southern Shiite
holy cities of An-Najaf and Karbala.
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