Posted on 07/05/2004 3:39:01 AM PDT by Silver Bird Worker
Associated Press July 5, 2004 5:45 a.m.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi officials arrested two Iranians trying to detonate a car bomb in a residential neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, authorities said.
Iraqi officials have blamed foreign fighters and religious extremists for a wave of vehicle bombings in recent months. The arrests Monday were the first time they actually captured any foreign fighters, according to Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an interior ministry spokesman. Mr. Abdul-Rahman said the men had been captured in the Talbiyah neighborhood as they tried to set off a car bomb. He didn't elaborate on what their target was.
In Basra, insurgents fired rockets at a government building early Monday, hitting nearby homes instead, police said. One person was killed and seven wounded. The attacks shortly after midnight were directed at the province's main offices near the center of the city.
The insurgents "missed and hit nearby homes instead," said Capt. Mushtaq Khaled of the Basra Police. The condition of the wounded wasn't immediately known.
On Sunday, saboteurs damaged a strategic crude-oil pipeline that runs from the country's northern oil fields to the south, police officials said.
Separately, an Islamic militant group denied in a statement on its Web site that it was responsible for killing a U.S. Marine taken hostage last month.
TRANSFER OF POWER
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Fire crews and police from at least three nearby cities worked into the night on Sunday to extinguish the blaze near Musayyib, about 50 miles southwest of Baghdad. Pipelines in that area have been hit several times in the past few weeks.
"We still haven't been able to put it (the fire) out," said an Iraqi police officer from Fallujah. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
Most of the damaged lines have been domestic feeders to a major Baghdad refinery. It was not immediately clear if the pipeline hit Sunday was used for export or how it would affect Iraq's oil output. However, the majority of Iraq's oil output comes from its southern fields.
Also Sunday, a senior official of the state-run South Oil Company told Dow Jones Newswires that Iraq shut down a key oil export pipeline near Basra after attacks on two major pipelines. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the shutdown reduced exports by 10%.
On Saturday, the company reported a breach -- the result of a pipeline failure, not sabotage -- on the smaller of two main export pipelines that carry crude oil to terminals in the south. The two lines had been knocked out of service last month, forcing a roughly weeklong halt in exports and cutting off Iraq's main source of post-sovereignty reconstruction revenue.
The new government has set up a dedicated force operating under the direction of the Oil Ministry to help monitor the lines and prevent the frequent insurgent attacks. But officials say that with over 4,300 miles of pipelines, providing adequate security is a difficult task.
Iyad Allawi, Iraq's new interim prime minister, has said recent attacks, including those on a key northern export line, have cost the country $1 billion in lost revenue.
Militant Group Denies Killing Marine
An Islamic militant group denied in a statement on its Web site that it was responsible for killing a U.S. Marine taken hostage last month.
The Ansar al-Sunna Army issued the statement Sunday in response to reports by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry that the group killed Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. The Lebanese statement followed a declaration in the name of Ansar al-Sunna that appeared on two other extremist Web sites a day earlier that it had killed the Marine, who is of Lebanese origin.
The fate of Cpl. Hassoun was unclear. Ansar al-Sunna's statement left open the possibility that the 24-year-old Marine was killed by another group or that he was still alive.
"The media have published, quoting the Lebanese foreign ministry, that the Ansar al-Sunna Army has killed the American hostage, of Lebanese origin, who was kidnapped in Iraq," the Ansar al-Sunna statement said. "In order to maintain our credibility in all issues, we declare that this statement that was attributed to us has no basis of truth," the statement said, adding: "any statement that is not issued through our site doesn't represent us."
Earlier, a Lebanese Foreign Ministry official in Beirut, Lebanon, said Cpl. Hassoun was believed to be dead and that Lebanese officials in Iraq were trying to track down his body. Lebanon's chief of mission in Baghdad "is trying to confirm the killing 100%, but it seems to be over," the Foreign Ministry official said. "We understand that he was slaughtered. God help him."
Later, however, Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid said news of the death "was not official." The U.S. military in Baghdad said it had no confirmation of Cpl. Hassoun's death and repeated today that his status remains "captured."
On June 27, the Arab television station Al Jazeera broadcast a videotape showing Cpl. Hassoun blindfolded, along with a statement from militants threatening to kill him unless the U.S. released all Iraqis in "occupation jails."
Yesterday's claim on Cpl. Hassoun's death was issued on the same Islamic extremist Web forum where footage was posted last month showing the beheading of U.S. engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., in Saudi Arabia. The site also often carries claims of attacks by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant said to be operating in Iraq.
The U.S. military in Baghdad said it was checking into the report of Cpl. Hassoun's death but had no confirmation. If confirmed, the slaying would be the fourth decapitation of a foreign hostage in the region since May.
Cpl. Hassoun's brother Sami said from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli that "we don't have any news."
Meanwhile, Iraqi troops shot and killed a man who threatened to blow up his vehicle outside their headquarters in a city northeast of Baghdad, according to local officials. Two bystanders were also killed.
Iraqi officials in the city of Baqouba said that a man driving a car rigged with explosives tried to attack the National Guard building there. The attacker got out of the car and the Iraqi troops opened fire, killing the man and setting off the explosives in the car, according to police chief Waleed al-Azawi.
Hospital officials reported that two bystanders were killed in the explosion.
In Baghdad, an explosion shook the home of an Education Ministry employee, in another attack targeting officials working with the interim government. Even low-level workers have been subjected to attack by insurgents who see the employees as collaborators with U.S. forces.
An Iraqi police official announced today that U.S. and Iraqi forces have detained six members of a militant group suspected of carrying out a string of assassinations in the country's northern region. The men were reportedly members of Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish group believed linked to al Qaeda, said Col. Sarhat Qader of the Iraqi police.
Iran to File Complaint Against Hussein
Iran said today it has prepared a criminal complaint against former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for his 1980 invasion of Iran and for using chemical weapons against Iranians during the neighboring nations' eight-year war.
Iran will file the documents with the Iraqi court where Mr. Hussein is standing trial, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. He did not say precisely when the complaint would be lodged.
"One of the crimes Saddam committed was his invasion of Iran and starting the war, killing many Iranian citizens and using chemical weapons in Halabja [within Iraq] and other places [in Iran] during the war,'' Mr. Asefi said. "We have prepared the complaint and Iran will definitely file the complaint with the Iraqi court."
Iraq took legal custody of Mr. Hussein from the U.S. on Wednesday. The former dictator's first court appearance Thursday dominated TV screens across the Middle East, where such images are unprecedented, and prompted many calls for his execution.
Troop Recall Doesn't Signal Draft
In the U.S., the Pentagon is forcing thousands of discharged soldiers back into the military, but that does not mean the U.S. needs to reinstate the draft, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said today.
"We cannot bring back a draft now and make some young men and women go into uniform and not bring in a whole lot of others to do different tasks," said Sen. John Warner, a Republican from Virginia, on NBC's "Meet the Press." The cost of benefits would be prohibitive, he said.
What has brought up the question again is the Pentagon's order last week to recall to active duty 5,674 members of the Individual Ready Reserve, soldiers who have served specified tours of duty but have years remaining in their enlistment contracts.
After that announcement, Rep. Rick Larsen, a Democrat from Washington and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said, "If there was any doubt that this administration was conducting a pseudo-draft, this call-up should dispel that doubt."
Excellent news.
I'm sure that faced with the threat of being humiliated with female underwear etc they will divulge a lot of information.
Tried to set off a car bomb? Sounds like they didn't read chapter one of the car-bomb manual. I think the punishment in this case...ought to be a beheading down in the middle of town with Al Jazzara filming it. Let these two fools die quickly by the sword, and then let the rest of the Islamo-fascists in the world know that coming to Iraq might be a one-way ticket. That might make some folks think twice.
What are they going to do them? They were already getting ready to blow themselves up.
no.... they were going to blow up a car. "They" means either they were caught in the planning stage or in the act of triggering "cell phone" or "timer" activation. I suspect that "they" will wish that they were blown up.
Nothing that a pair of pliers, car battery, jumper cables and some water can't accomplish ............... or a set of panties on the head or naked "Twister" game. Those guys are getting questioned and the "Just like that (poof), they were gone."
Perhaps Iran needs a message like losing a pipeline or refinery!
Just like they do in Iran, use a construction crane and hoist them by the neck until dead.
I don't think the news release about this incident and the upcoming news about foreign governments' involvement in the terrorist actions in Iraq is a coincidence. I'll bet others from Iran (and Syria) have been caught, but now is the right time to make this public in a very big way.
The coming weeks are going to be very interesting.
Hang them.
Be sure to grease the knives/swords with generous coatings of bacon grease and pork fat.
Yeah, Iraqi officials haven't exactly minced words about Syrian and Iranian involvement in this horrible campaign.
Let me see what I can dig up about these arrests.
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