American detention acts in Iraqi cities; explosion in Baghdad, UN withdraws employees
Iraq-USA, Politics, 10/31/2003

One person was killed at least in a violent explosion in the downtown of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. News reports from Baghdad said that the explosion took place at the crossing of al-Mutanabbi and al-Rashid streets in the downtown of Baghdad resulted in setting fire in two buildings.

Meantime, the UN announced yesterday it will withdraw its foreign employees from Baghdad temporarily until consultations are made on the future of its operations in Iraq. The spokesman for the UN in Geneva, Mary Hos, said that the decision only target foreign employees in Baghdad and not employees in the city of Irbil to the northern part of the country.

For her part, the spokeswoman for the Red Cross (ICRC) said that all foreign employees in the committee were due to leave Iraq yesterday or today in order to meet within days in a neighboring state with ICRC officials which takes Geneva as a headquarters. The meeting deals with means of reducing the number of foreign employees in Baghdad following the blowing up of a booby trapped car which targeted its headquarters on Monday.

The spokeswoman, Nada Doumani explained that the committee despite of that wants to stay because of the continued sufferings of the Iraqis. Doumani explained that the ICRC resumed some operations such as transporting water to al-Sader city.

She added that the committee will discuss taking additional security measures to protect some 600 of its local employees and its foreign employees who will decide to stay in Iraq.

In the battlefield, resistance attacks continued against the American forces. News reports in Baghdad said that two positions for the occupation forces were exposed to two separate attacks by mortar shelling to the north of Baghdad. It explained that the two positions are Kafer Qasem camp and al-Qalaa quarters camps which are close to Sameraa city.

Witnesses said that American forces backed by armored vehicles yesterday at dawn broke into a house in Abu Gharib to the west of Baghdad and arrested 10 persons who were inside it.

The witnesses said the American forces found weapons and missile shells inside the house. The American forces carried out night breaking-in operations in Tikrit city, birthplace of the topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, into what they called terrorist cells. The breaking-in operations resulted in arresting ten persons who were taken by truck with their eyes covered and were interrogated.

Meanwhile, American military sources said that forces of the fourth contingent army broke into the city of Baqouba yesterday at dawn in the context of its search of persons accused of manufacturing explosives. The sources added that the US forces detained five persons in the city for investigation.

In al-Musil, an eye witness said that a US military vehicle in al-Jawsaq quarters to the south west of the city was exposed to an attack by missile shells and this resulted in casualties among the American soldiers. News reports said that a shipment train for the American forces was exposed to an attack and resulted in burning some of its containers followed by theft operations. Witnesses said that the shipment train was running on the road between al-Falouja and al-Ramadi in Albi Elwan area to the west of Baghdad to transport missions for the American army when it was exposed to the attack.

In this regard, an official at the US defense department said that the department has information that the deputy chairman of the Revolution Leadership Council in the former regime Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri is the one who coordinates the attacks against the American soldiers in Iraq.

The official who asked to be anonymous said that this information came after the detention of a former secretary for al-Douri and several members of Ansar al-Islam group in Iraq. He indicated that most of the executors of these attacks are foreign fighters of Ansar al-Islam members who sneaked to Iraq.

Worthy mentioning that al-Douri is number 6 on the American list of most wanted former Iraqi officials.

The US officials claims links of Ansar al-Islam group to al-Qaida organization and stress that the group which works from north Iraq has experts in manufacturing biological and chemical weapons.

Moreover, the Pentagon announced that the leadership of the American forces in Iraq will intensify the process of collecting intelligence information to fight what it called terrorism supported by workers in the field of mass destruction weapons.

Previous Stories:
  Political survey on Iraqi attitudes   (10/29/2003)
  Experts talk of the start of guerilla war against occupation in Iraq   (10/28/2003)
  Bremer Discusses Security Situation in Iraq   (10/27/2003)

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