Al-Hakim office attack victims' Funeral; Iraqi resistance continues, US chase Saddam

News reports in Sameraa's yesterday said that a large explosion took place in a camp for the American forces to the north of the city.

One eyewitness said that the camp was exposed to an attack by mortars shells and this resulted in heavy losses in the lines of the Americans. Smoke was seen coming up from the site of the explosion while the American planes were flying over the camp.

On the other hand, a group calling itself "brigades of Abu Hafas al-Masri" yesterday claimed responsibility for the attack made by a booby trapped truck at the headquarters of the UN in Baghdad last Tuesday. It vowed in a statement issued on the internet to carry out more attack against what it described as "enemies of Islam." The statement of the group, suspected to have ties to al-Qaida organization, said that "attacking Iraq was a lesson for the US and the UN which is but one branch for the US Department Of State." The statement strongly criticized the UN special envoy to Iraq who who was killed in the attack together with other 22 persons and accused him of trying to improve the image of the US in his UN missions.

On the other hand, senior leaders at the American army in Iraq said they believe that the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is more expectedly moving between secure houses each few hours.

Col. James Hicky, the commander of the contingent deployed in Tikrit, the birth place of Saddam, said that current estimates indicate that Saddam Hussein changes location every two hours. Hicky added that his forces have recently launched three repeated campaigns on Tikrit and surrounding areas and detained several prominent figures in the few past weeks.

On the other hands, thousands of Shiite in al-Najaf city eulogized three persons who were killed in an attack by a mortar on Sunday at the office of the prominent Shiite clergy Ayatullah Muhammad Saeed al-Hakim.