Many killed in attack on American base in Musil
Iraq, Military, 12/22/2004

The US defense department announced that 24 persons were killed and 60 others injured at least in an explosion targeted one American base in Musil to the north of Iraq.

News reports said that the attack which took place in a former Presidential palace taken as a headquarters for the American and Iraqi forces. American sources said that the attack was launched by Katyusha missiles and mortars shelling. A group calling itself "the Sunni supporters army" claimed in a statement via its site on the Internet responsibility for the operation. It said that one of its members carried out a suicide attack that targeted a restaurant in the American base.


The US President George W. Bush condemned the attack and considered it as reflecting the despair of the gunmen.

The White House threatened to defeat what it called the enemies of freedom. The spokesman for the White House Scott McClellan deplored that attack and said that Washington will continue to support the Iraqi people in order to build a democratic and free future.

The American army attributed the increase in the number of victims to that the attack took place when soldiers were gathering to have their lunch. The commander of the American forces in Musil, Carter Ham, said that among the killed and injured persons are American soldiers and members of the multinational force, civilians and military men and members of the Iraqi army.

Witnesses also said that several explosions took place. American sources also noted that mortars were used in the attack against the base.

On the other hand, one American military source said that the Iraqi police intercepted an attack that targeted control of a police center in the city.

In Musil, university students demonstrated in protest of indiscriminate detention carried out by the American occupation forces in the lines of the Iraqi civilians.

Meantime, six Iraqis were killed and other 9 wounded in an American bombardment by planes and tanks in the industrial quarters and parts of the Heit city to the west of Baghdad in a military operation the American forces started on Monday evening and continued until Tuesday evening.

On the other hand, the American army announced in a statement that five of its soldiers and one Iraqi civilian were injured in a bomb explosion near al-Hweijeh to the west of Karkouk.

In al-Fataha area to the east of Beji, a large fire erupted in an oil pipeline between Karkouk and Beji after it was blown up. The explosion resulted in a fire in the area which includes main lines for oil transport from the Turkish port of Cehyan and others linking Karkouk fields to Beji and al-Doura oil refineries in Baghdad. Worthy mentioning that fire is sill ablaze since one month in five oil wells in al-Khabbaza oil fields to the west of Karkouk.

In Kharnabat area to the south of Baqouba, unidentified gunmen assassinated Taleb Ibrahim Zaher, a professor in Deyali university one of the Iraqi atomic scientists. News reports said that the gunmen fired with bullets the car of the Iraqi scientist over a bridge, while he was on his way for his work headquarters. Meanwhile, the interim Iraqi government intends to start bringing back Fallujah evacuees gradually to their city which was destroyed by the vast American attack in November, international relief agencies started an urgent mission to ensure aid for one quarter of Iraqis in the city.

Previous Stories:
  Iraq elections begin process to democratic government, Bush says   (12/21/2004)
  63 Iraqis killed in two attacks in Najaf, Karbala   (12/20/2004)
  Three westerners killed in Iraq   (12/18/2004)
  American researchers and US troops in Iraq   (12/11/2004)
  UN envoy to Iraq discusses the elections with Washington   (12/11/2004)

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