"Syrian" bomber caught alive in Baghdad

Reuters ^ | Mon 27 October, 2003 16:35 BST | Ian Simpson

[yonif]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. general says the one attacker captured alive in the suicide bombings that have killed 34 has a Syrian passport, fuelling suspicions that foreign fighters were behind a rising tide of violence.

Brigadier General Mark Hertling of the U.S. Army's 1st Armoured Division said on Monday police shot and wounded the man when he got out of a car and tried to hurl a grenade at a Baghdad police station. The car carried three mortar rounds and was packed with TNT, he said.

"He's a foreign fighter. He had a Syrian passport and the policemen claim that as he was shot and fell that he said he was Syrian," Hertling told a news conference.

Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister Ahmad Ibrahim told the news conference the wounded attacker was now unconscious in hospital.

Hertling said suicide attacks were not typical of supporters of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who have been blamed by the U.S. military for most of guerrilla attacks on its troops and other targets in postwar Iraq.

"There are indicators that certainly these attacks have a mode of operation of foreign fighters," Hertling said, adding that possible foreign links among the attackers would be investigated in the days to come.

Thirty-four people were killed, including eight police officers, in the suicide attacks on three other police stations and the Red Cross headquarters, Ibrahim said. Another 224 people were wounded, 65 of them police.

One of the bombers, driving an Iraqi police car and wearing a police uniform, was admitted to a police compound before blowing himself and the station up, Hertling said.

He described the attacks as coordinated but said the coordination was not very sophisticated, extending no further than a decision by the various attackers to set off their bombs between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.

"That's not professional, it's actually somewhat amateurish," Hertling said.

There was no indication that Monday's bombings were related to a Sunday rocket attack on a fortified Baghdad hotel where U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz was staying, Hertling said. A U.S. soldier was killed and 17 people were wounded in that attack, but Wolfowitz was unhurt.

[Catspaw]

He's got a Syrian passport, but his he Syrian? I remember that the Syrians were handing out passports, no questions asked, to people going into Syria to fight on Saddam's side.

[BenLurkin]

Bumped.

War in Iraq = War on Terror

[boxerblues]

Either way Syria has some explaining to do

[Redleg Duke]

Syria...You are next on the list!

[yonif]

Syria has long supported terrorism against Israel. This is nothing new, in my opinion.

[r9etb]

he got out of a car and tried to hurl a grenade at a Baghdad police station. The car carried three mortar rounds and was packed with TNT, he said..... He's a foreign fighter....."

He's also an idiot, apparently. Carloads of TNT are generally meant to be used by suicide bombers.

[Pest]

He's also an idiot, apparently. Carloads of TNT are generally meant to be used by suicide bombers.

Maybe he chickened out.

[Centurion2000]

Whoops .... time to bomb Damascus now :)

[r9etb]

Maybe he chickened out.

Could be. Maybe he thought grenade tossing would get him a couple of dozen slightly used women.....

[boxerblues]

Im curious though, hasnt Bush warned the Syrian President? Are we getting gun shy about going into another country in defense of Iraq?

[aynrandfreak]

This administration needs to quit going soft on Syria. They aren't following Rummy's advice. We seem complacent on stopping those who give safe haven (and free passage) to terrorists

[Larry381]

Syria has some Syrious 'splain'in to do!!

[Billthedrill]

It's beginning to become obvious just how much terrorist activity was channeled through the connections offered by the Syrian intelligence services - they've been in it up to their elbows from day one, and were more responsible than anyone else for the utter anarchy that Lebanon became. The axis of evil is now somewhat attenuated, running from Tehran to Damascus - to a degree this was always so, and to a degree the recent events in Iraq have forced it that direction. Young Mr. Assad's seat may be beginning to warm a bit. His daddy managed to play all the ends off against the middle, but a couple of the ends aren't around anymore.

[Publius6961]

Two serious questions:

Are these cockroaches turned over to the nascent Iraqi authorities?

What is their mean life expectancy?

[Zathras]

The target:Israel
The training area: Lebanon
The ammo dump: Iraq
Propaganda: West Bank
Tear jerker: Gaza
Hideout: Syria
The Money: Saudi Arabia

[Prodigal Son]

What's good here is the Iraqi police were the ones that shot this bastard. Good work for them for saving lives.

[MizSterious]

Syria has always been next on the list, in my opinion. Just a question of when. (Again, in my opinion.)

[Publius6961]

BUMP

[MizSterious]

I don't know if it's "going soft" as much as it is "giving them enough rope."