One of the troops has died, American media is reporting. Three grenades were rolled into three tents housing military leaders of the 101st Airborne Division on Saturday night at Camp Pennsylvania, near the Iraqi border, said Sky correspondent Stuart Ramsay, who is in the base. The grenade that was lobbed into the first tent, where the commanding officer Colonel Ben Hodges was based, did not go off. But two other grenades used to attack tents where the unit's majors and captains sleep did explode, injuring Col Hodges. Ramsay watched as the suspect, an engineer from the 327th infantry assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, was held. "It appears he was hiding in a bunker near where the attacks happened," Ramsay said. "As the man who carried out the attack moved away there was some shooting. He was shot in the leg. |
He was held on the ground less than 100 yards from where the attack happened." Ramsay said the soldier had been guarding a grenades depot at the time. He said fears about the soldier's behaviour had been raised by colleagues. "In recent days they were concerned about his behaviour and were not going to send him up to the front when the soldiers were going to be deployed." It is not clear whether the soldier, who Ramsay said would have been in the Gulf for some weeks, had planned the attack before being deployed. "To be honest we just do not know," Ramsay said. "Talking to other soldiers, it could be that he was disgruntled. They said he had been acting 'weird' for days." Eleven soldiers who were seriously hurt were flown out of the camp by helicopter. |
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It was initially thought two Kuwaiti nationals were involved but it quickly became clear it was just one American soldier. Ramsay said a criminal investigation is now being carried out. Iraqi soldiers launched a Scud missile attack during the incident, but it is not known whether they are linked. The Scud was shot down by Patriot missile. Meanwhile, coalition forces are 'half way to Baghdad' but have hit fierce resistance in the desert around the holy town Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad. The Americans claimed to have taken control of Nasiriyah and Umm Qasr in southern Iraq but reports say fighting is continuing in the centre of Basra. Britain claimed "many thousands" of Iraqis had been taken prisoner but Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon refused to predict how long the conflict would last. Turkey denied earlier reports that it had sent 1,500 commandos into northern Iraq to confront the Kurds. Millions of anti-war protesters demonstrated across the world on Saturday. |
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