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Saturday, November 12, 2005

Al Qaeda says 4 Iraqis, including husband and wife, carried out suicide bombings

By Alia Shukri Hamzeh

AMMAN — Security forces have arrested scores of suspects believed to be connected with Wednesday's suicide bombings that were claimed by Al Qaeda in Iraq, informed sources said Friday.

“There were ongoing arrests and we will not hesitate to interrogate any suspected individual,” said a security official. The official refused to state the exact number of arrested suspects or their nationality, but did not deny that those who were rounded up were more than 150.

The Associated Press reported Friday 120 arrests, mainly Iraqis and Jordanians. But in his press conference, Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher confirmed 12 arrests and did not elaborate on their nationalities. However, the security official, who noted that the number of those detained kept changing because many have been released after questioning, said the arrests included Iraqi nationals.

Al Qaeda said Friday that four Iraqis, including a husband and wife, carried out the suicide bombings against the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels, killing 57 people and injuring 96. The death toll of the three suicide bombings rose to 57 after Hollywood film director Mustafa Akkad died of sustained injuries early Friday (see separate story).

In a statement posted on the Internet, Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by fugitive Abu Mussab Zarqawi, said the group charged with planning and implementing the attacks was made up of three men identified as “commanders Abu Khabib, Abu Muath and Abu Omaira.” The fourth perpetrator was identified as “the venerable sister Um Omaira.”

“Um Omaira chose to follow her husband Abu Omaira on the path of martyrdom,” said the statement, whose authenticity was not verified.

Muasher said Al Qaeda was still the prime suspect, adding that the attacks were carried out according to the group's pattern.

“But I cannot confirm that until the results of the investigations are out,” he said.

Muasher told a press conference that forensic experts were still examining evidence as well as conducting DNA tests on the remains of the three men believed to be the bombers. He added that investigators had not found evidence to indicate that there was a fourth bomber, saying police were examining security videos from cameras in the hotels.

Agence France-Presse quoted a hospital source as saying that the head of a woman believed to be a suicide bomber had been found among the remains of victims at one hotel. “We received a woman's head and mangled body remains,” the source told AFP.

“This usually is the case when you are dealing with a suicide, the body is ripped apart and often the head is intact.”

But according to Momen Hadidi, the chief of staff of Forensic Medicine and head of the investigation team of autopsies, the decapitated head was that of a 15-year- old girl who has already been identified and buried by her family. Hadidi said the girl was decapitated because she was standing close to the suicide bomber.

He added that his team of forensic experts were thoroughly examining the dismembered body parts of those who were blown up by the explosions and were carrying out chemistry and biology tests.

“We are very close to identifying all the dismembered people,” he said, adding that descriptive indicators of the parts of the suicide bombers so far revealed that they were males.

“We are waiting for the tests results to come up to be sure,” Hadidi added.

Eyewitnesses and employees of both the Grand Hyatt and Days Inn hotels said they spoke to the bombers, who had an Iraqi accent.

A Grand Hyatt staffer said he saw a suspicious looking man nervously pacing back-and-forth and that he asked him if he was looking for someone, only to be answered that he was meeting friends. He said the bomber, who had an Iraqi accent, sat down at one of the tables at the piano lounge and five minutes later blew himself up.

Days Inn Manager Khalid Abu Ghosh said his staff had asked a suspicious man in his mid-20s to leave the hotel coffee shop because he was acting weird and fumbling with his jacket, in what appeared to be an attempt to detonate himself.

The hotel employees escorted the man outside the hotel, after which he blew himself up.

“It was agreed to use suicide belts for precision and to cause maximum damage,” said Al Qaeda statement signed in the name of the group's spokesman, Abu Maysara Al Iraqi.

Thirty-three Jordanians and at least 12 foreigners were reported to have been killed in the blasts. Several bodies have not yet been identified.

Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Ali Ghalib told AP that it was possible that Amman hotel bombers came from Iraq. “The attack looks like it was an act carried by Al Qaeda and Al Zarqawi or those around him,” Ghalib said. “Whether they are Iraqis or not, we are not sure. But it is not impossible,” he added. He noted that the number of Iraqis carrying out suicide attacks has increased in recent months, saying “that is why we cannot deny or confirm” if the hotel assailants were Iraqis.

Muasher told reporters Friday that authorities have banned traffic and individuals from crossing to Iraq via the Karameh land borders.

“All land borders are open, except for Al Karameh,” he said.

Immediately after the bombings authorities closed its land borders with Iraq, Israel and the West Bank, Syria and Saudi Arabia. The borders were reopened the second day.

Although initial reports indicate that the perpetrators were Iraqis, Muasher said he did not expect a backlash against Iraqis in the Kingdom. “The attackers do not represent the views of all Iraqis. They are terrorists and barbarians who do not belong to any identity,” Muasher said.

Firebombs thrown at French mosque

France has a sizeable Muslim population.

Saturday 12 November 2005 - 5:13

An unidentified attacker has thrown two firebombs into a mosque in southern France, in an attack that was condemned by the French president and prime minister.

The attack on the mosque in Carpentras occurred on Friday and caused only minor damage, the Vaucluse regional government said in a statement. No one was injured.

The attack was condemned by President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who are struggling to contain more than two weeks of rioting across the country.

It was not immediately clear if the attack was directly linked to the wider unrest.

Chirac expressed his solidarity with the town's Muslim community and assured them that "light will be shed on the circumstances surrounding this attack", his office said in a statement.

"All steps will be taken to identify the culprits and bring them to justice so that they answer for this particularly unacceptable act," De Villepin's office said in a statement early on Saturday.

An unidentified attacker threw the firebombs at the mosque's entrance hall during Friday prayers and fled, the regional government said. He was pursued by two witnesses but escaped, it added.

About 20 worshippers inside the mosque quickly put out a fire started by one of the bombs and activities inside the mosque quickly resumed, the statement said.

Car bomb hits Baghdad market

Baghdad residents inspect the remains of a car bomb that exploded in an eastern Baghdad district November 12, 2005. The explosion in a market place killed at least eight people. REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber

Sat Nov 12, 2005 - 10:48 AM GMT

By Paul Tait

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made his first visit to Iraq since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, arriving on Saturday amid tight security as a car bomb ripped through a Baghdad market, killing at least eight people.

Annan came from Amman where he discussed Wednesday's deadly bombings in three hotels in the Jordanian capital, which al Qaeda in Iraq said was carried out by four Iraqis, including a married couple.

His visit, which was not previously announced due to security concerns, follows separate trips by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the past few days.

Rice said she wanted to help ease sectarian tensions that have dominated the campaign for a parliamentary election on December 15. U.S. commanders have warned that insurgents may intensify their violent campaign to disrupt the vote.

As Annan arrived in the heavily fortified international "green zone" where most government business is conducted, a car bomb exploded in a market in east Baghdad, starting fires in several shops and killing at least eight people, police said.

"A car parked near a pharmacy suddenly blew up and we saw smoke and people started running," witness Ali Saleh said. "Women were searching for their children. The shrapnel flew everywhere, the force of the blast was so strong."

Another witness said many shops in the market were set on fire, with people trapped inside. Police said there were at least eight dead and a dozen wounded.

The latest attack came just two days after a suicide bomber killed dozens of people in a crowded restaurant in Baghdad known to be frequented by Iraqi security forces.

Iraq's Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government and its U.S. backers are battling a Sunni Arab insurgency that has killed thousands of people since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

BOMBINGS

The United Nations has been operating in Iraq at greatly reduced levels since international staffers were withdrawn in October 2003 after two bombings at its Baghdad offices.

Annan's Iraq envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello was among 22 people killed in a truck bomb at the former U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003.

Iraqi officials have been pressing the United Nations for months to significantly increase its involvement in humanitarian, political and reconstruction activities.

Annan was due to meet Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and other top officials, as well as U.N. staff in Baghdad.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously earlier this week to let the U.S.-led multinational force remain in place through the end of 2006, as requested by Iraq's government.

U.S. President George W. Bush, has refused to set a timetable for the troops' withdrawal, despite mounting domestic pressure to do so and falling personal approval ratings.

The U.S. military pushed ahead with an anti-insurgent operation in western Iraq near the Syrian border which it says is aimed at driving out al Qaeda militants and making the area safe for people to vote at the December elections.

The military said four suspected insurgents were killed on Saturday in a raid on an "al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist safe house" near Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad.

Government officials and U.S. authorities were checking an unconfirmed report late on Friday that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, believed by U.S. commanders to be helping the insurgency, had died.

Al Arabiya satellite television quoted a Baath party statement reporting the death of Ibrahim, the most senior member of the former regime still at large. He was number six on the U.S. military's most wanted list with a $10 million (6 million pound) reward offered for his capture.

There was no confirmation from other sources and one Web site which publishes regular news releases from Baath party supporters, made no mention of the death on Saturday morning, more than 12 hours after it was first reported.

(Additional reporting by Huda Majeed, Mariam Karouny, Claudia Parsons, Fares al-Mehdawi in Baghdad)

Marines on Okinawa mark Corps' 230th birthday

Marines re-enact the raising of the flag on Mt. Surabachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima at the Marines Corps 230th birthday celebration on Camp Foster, Okinawa, on Thursday. (David Allen / S&S)

By David Allen - Stars and Stripes Pacific edition

Saturday, November 12, 2005

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — It threatened to rain during Thursday’s celebration of the Marine Corps’ 230th birthday. But that didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits.

It had rained overnight but the drops held off during the hourlong ceremony on the parade deck, allowing those gathered to enjoy the uniform pageant of Marines in the successive garb of Leathernecks from the Corps’ forming in 1775 at Tun Tavern, Philadelphia, during the Revolutionary War to a few of today’s snipers attempting to blend in with the damp grass.

The pageant was followed by the traditional reading of the birthday message that Gen. John A. Lejeune, the Marine Corps’ 13th commandant, made in 1921, followed by a message from current commandant Gen. Michael W. Hagee.

“The sense of honor, courage and patriotism that epitomized those who answered that first call to arms 230 years ago is still indelibly printed on our ranks today,” was the message Hagee conveyed. “Let us strengthen our ties to the past by paying homage to those who have gone before us.

“As we honor the sacrifices of our wounded and fallen comrades, our commitment to one another remains unshakable. We take special pride in the actions of the Marines now serving in harm’s way.”

One of the ceremony’s highlights was the re-creation of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima 60 years ago, during World War II. It was followed by the traditional cutting of a four-tiered birthday cake by Brig. Gen. Joseph V. Medina, commanding general of Marine Corps Base Camp Butler.

Medina presented a piece of the cake to the oldest active-duty Marine present, Col. Bradley E. Turner, 53, chief of staff for Marine Corps bases, who then gave a piece to the youngest Marine present, Pfc. Osbaldo Escatel, 18, assigned to Camp Kinser.

Medina then served a piece of the cake to Lawrence E. White, 81, the oldest retired Marine present. White, who retired as a sergeant major, joined the Marine Corps in 1943.

The Corps’ birthday also was celebrated with a 230-mile run on Camp Foster consisting of 650 individuals running one-mile increments for 39 hours and culminating in a formation run of 1,500 Marines for the final two miles Thursday morning.

Marines carry the birthday cake onto the parade deck at Camp Foster on Thursday. Printed on the cake were names of some of the most renowed battles Marines have taken part in over the years. (David Allen / S&S)

Brig. Gen. Joseph V. Medina, commanding general, Marine Corps Base Camp Butler, gives a slice of the Marine birthday cake to the oldest Marine present at Thursday's event, retired Sgt. Major Lawrence E. White, 81. (David Allen / S&S)

A Marine sniper blends in with his surroundings during a uniform pageant at Thursday's celebration of the Marine Corps' 230th birthday on Okinawa. (David Allen / S&S)

Marines dressed in the uniforms worn during the Spannish American War and the Mexican War, at Thursday's celebration. (David Allen / S&S)