Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Insurgents fired explosives at a dining tent during lunchtime at a U.S. Army base in Iraq's northern city of Mosul today, killing more than 20 people, including soldiers and employees of military contractor Halliburton Co.
``The killed include U.S. military personnel, U.S. contractors, foreign national contractors and Iraqi army,'' Brigadier General Carter Ham said in a Pentagon video from Mosul, according to a transcript. He did not provide an exact number of those dead, and said more than 60 were wounded.
Ham is commander of Task Force Olympia, a roughly 8,000- soldier force that includes 5,000 soldiers from Fort Lewis, Washington. Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, was the scene of a violent flare-up last month in which insurgents seized most of the town's police stations.
Today's attack pointed up the widespread violence aimed at U.S. forces and Iraqis as the country readies for its first democratic vote since the Saddam Hussein dictatorship was toppled last year. Three election workers were shot dead on a Baghdad street Dec. 19 and at least 63 other Iraqis died in bombings elsewhere the same day.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose organization is helping prepare for Iraqi elections next month, warned of the threat of insurgent attacks.
``Violence, if it continues, will have an impact on elections,'' Annan said at a news conference today in New York.
Rockets Suspected
The attackers in Mosul fired suspected rockets just as hundreds of soldiers sat down to eat, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter on the scene. The newspaper posted a photograph shot inside the tent showing wounded soldiers being treated. The roof of the tent was in shreds and sunlight streaked the smoke-filled air.
The force of the blasts knocked soldiers from their seats, and a fireball reached the top of the tent while shrapnel hit diners, according to the Times-Dispatch report on its Web site. Soldiers overturned tables to use as stretchers, carting off the wounded.
Among the dead in Mosul were two American soldiers from a Richmond, Virginia-based engineering battalion, according to the Times-Dispatch. The newspaper said 24 people were killed.
``It's a sad day in Mosul,'' Ham said. Those surviving will ``do what they can do best to honor those who were fallen today, and that is to see this very important mission through to a successful completion.''
`No Road Map'
Houston-based Halliburton issued a statement saying it was ``deeply saddened'' by the deaths of four employees of subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root and three subcontractors.
``There is no road map for coping with events like this and we are doing everything we can to support our KBR personnel in Mosul,'' the e-mailed statement said. The deaths today raised the toll of Halliburton workers and subcontractors killed in Iraq and Kuwait to 62.
About 250 miles south of Mosul, in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a surprise visit and met with Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Blair, the staunchest ally of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, said holding elections Jan. 30 will help stabilize the country.
The U.S. force in Mosul force includes a Stryker armored- vehicle brigade that has about 300 wheeled units. The Strykers have been patrolling Mosul since a widespread campaign of intimidation against city police started last month.
Insurgents took advantage of the U.S. focus on a military operation in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, last month to launch their Mosul attack. U.S. and Iraqi commanders were forced to deploy troops to the northern city on Nov. 11 after insurgents seized most of Mosul's police stations.
Six Iraqi civilians.