[Mb-civic] Mortar Attack Kills, Injures More than 100 Iraqis

[Michael Butler]

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  Mortar Attack Kills, Injures More than 100 Iraqis
  MSNBC

  Tuesday 19 October 2004

Attack targeted National Guard headquarters north of Baghdad.

  BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi officials said Tuesday more than 100 Iraqis were
killed and wounded when a mortar attack hit an Iraqi National Guard
headquarters north of Baghdad.

   Six mortar rounds fell on National Guard offices in an early morning
attack in Mashahidan, 25 miles north of Baghdad, said Iraqi police and
National Guard officers under condition of anonymity.

   There was no breakdown on the number of those killed and injured. U.S.
Blackhawk helicopters evacuated all the injured, police said. No further
information was immediately available.

  U.S. Targets Insurgents in Ramadi, Fallujah

  Also Tuesday, U.S. troops battled insurgents in a major city west of
Baghdad after the U.S. command said it destroyed several weapons storage
sites and safehouses of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the
militant bastion Fallujah.

  The two operations were part of a stepped up campaign to curb Sunni Muslim
extremists before January's national elections and bring the volatile region
west of the capital under government control.

  Residents of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, said fighting raged near
the city hall and a Humvee was ablaze. There were no reports of casualties.

  In Baghdad, the U.S. command said the late night attacks in Fallujah
occurred around midnight but did not specify whether they were airstrikes.

  "Multiple secondary explosions indicate a significant amount of explosives
or ammunition inside the houses," the statement said.

  It said recent attacks had forced leadership changes in al-Zarqawi's
Tawhid and Jihad movement and the strikes late Monday targeted possible
replacement leaders. Tawhid and Jihad has claimed responsibility for many
car bombings and the beheading of hostages.

  The strikes came shortly after Fallujah's chief negotiator, Sheik Khaled
al-Jumeili, ruled out any quick resumption of talks to find a peaceful
solution to the standoff in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

  Allawi Extends Cash-for-Weapons Program

  On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi announced plans to extend a
cash-for-weapons program for Shiite fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City to
cities nationwide in an attempt to disarm the country.

   The government launched the cash-for-guns program in Sadr City as part of
a deal to end weeks of fighting in the Shiite district of Baghdad and has
twice extended the deadline for fighters to hand in their weapons.

   On Monday, Allawi told the National Council, a government oversight body,
that the program is going so well he wants to extend it to the rest of Iraq.

   "The government is determined to disarm cities and neighborhoods because
our forces are now ready to fight terrorists and there's no justification
for people to keep weapons at home," Allawi said.

   Saboteurs Strike Key Oil Pipeline

  In northern Iraq, saboteurs attacked and set on fire a key oil pipeline
that connects the Beiji oil refinery with Turkey, police said Tuesday.

  The pipeline was hit with explosives late Monday, said a Beiji police
officer on condition of anonymity. The attack happened about eight miles
from the refinery. Beiji is 155 miles north of Baghdad.

  An official at the state-run Northern Oil Company also confirmed the
attack but did not give details.

  Iraq's oil industry, which provides desperately needed money for Iraq's
reconstruction efforts, has been the target of repeated attacks by
insurgents in recent months.

  Meanwhile, a 1st Infantry Division Soldier died from a non-combat injury
at a base in Diyala province, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

  The soldier was found at late Sunday in his living quarters after he did
not return to his guard post. The incident is under investigation. The name
of the soldier is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

  U.K. Weighs Moving Troops Closer to Baghdad

  In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Tuesday that Britain needs to
redeploy troops closer to Baghdad so that the insurgency in central Iraq can
be dealt with ahead of Iraqi elections.

  The government is considering a U.S. request for a small number of British
troops to be moved nearer the Iraqi capital to free up American forces for
anti-insurgency operations.

  Straw said a final decision depended on advice from U.K. military
commanders on the ground. Most British troops in Iraq are in the relatively
peaceful south of the country, whereas the American sector is far more
volatile.

  "The security situation in part of the country is very serious, it is of
critical importance that the insurgency is dealt with," Straw told British
Broadcasting Corp. radio.

  "Otherwise ... the elections would be flawed and that is why it is
necessary for us to make an additional effort."

  National elections are scheduled in Iraq for January, but ongoing violence
near Baghdad threatens to prevent voting in many areas and undermine the
legitimacy of the whole process.

  Britain hasn't said how many troops might be redeployed, or where
precisely they would go to. But military sources have said that if the
request was granted, Britain's reserve regiment, the 650-strong First
Battalion Black Watch, which is stationed near the southern port city of
Basra, would be the obvious choice.

  In a response to violence, Australia's government said Tuesday that it was
moving its embassy in Baghdad into the strife-torn city's heavily fortified
Green Zone.

  The announcement came less than two days after a car bomb blast close to
the Australian embassy in the fashionable Jadiriyah district killed six
people late Sunday. No Australians were hurt in the blast, which authorities
believe was aimed at an Iraqi police convoy.

  The Department of Foreign Affairs briefly confirmed a media report of the
move on Tuesday, saying the embassy would be moved in the first half of next
year.

  Australia has 920 troops in and around Iraq and sent 2,000 to take part in
last year's U.S.-led invasion.

 

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