My son will be returning there shortly. Thank your son Graybeard 58. May God bless him.
By Maher al-Thanoon
Tuesday, December 21, 2004; 9:10 AM
MOSUL, Iraq -- A blast caused many injuries at a U.S. military base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
"At 12 p.m. today an explosion occurred at a U.S. military installation in Mosul causing multiple casualties," it said in a statement, giving no details. "The cause of the explosion is under investigation."
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings, a spokesman for Task Force Olympia, the U.S. force responsible for Mosul and surrounding areas, said he would give no more details for the time being.
"Details are still coming in and at this time we don't have a final casualty count or confirmed cause of the explosion," Sergeant Joseph Sanchez said in a statement.
Witnesses heard two or three explosions and saw smoke rising from the biggest U.S. base in the region, around an airfield in the southwest of the city known as Camp Merez.
However, explosions are commonplace in the area and the blasts attracted no particular attention among local people.
People living close to a headquarters base in the north of the city, Camp Freedom, said they were aware of nothing unusual. The same was true of a small base in the city centre.
Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, has seen incessant violence for the past few weeks since Sunni Arab insurgents routed the U.S.-trained police force in November while many U.S. forces were concentrated on storming guerrilla bases in Falluja.
Ethnic tensions have also been inflamed in a city that is home to both Arabs and Kurds.
There has been speculation that Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab Zarqawi, once active around Falluja, west of Baghdad, had moved some of his operations to the Mosul area.
The city, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, was home to some loyalists of Saddam Hussein's old regime. Saddam's two elder sons were hiding there when they were surrounded and killed by U.S. troops in July last year.
Earlier on Tuesday, Hastings said Iraqi police had repelled a new attack by insurgents on a Mosul police station.
"An Iraqi police station came under attack by indirect and small arms fire during a coordinated effort by insurgent fighters to overrun the station in central Mosul," he said.
"The Iraqi police successfully repelled the attack denying insurgents access to the station. This is the sixth time since Nov. 10 where insurgents have tried but failed to overrun police stations."
Gunmen have roamed parts of Mosul with ease in recent weeks.
Last week, five Turkish security guards from Ankara's embassy in Baghdad and two of their Iraqi drivers were killed when a convoy was ambushed in the northern city. One of the men was decapitated in full view of onlookers on the street.