| Blast at Italian police HQ in Iraq kills 22
Bremer makes hastily arranged trip to Washington
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two vehicles crashed the gate of the Italian military headquarters Wednesday in Nasiriya, Iraq, and one exploded, killing at least 22 people, coalition and Iraqi hospital officials said.
The blast killed 14 Italian troops, according to coalition and Italian officials. Italian police in Rome said that 11 Italian military police and three army soldiers died and seven Italians were wounded.
Iraqi hospital sources told CNN that at least eight Iraqis also died. There was no immediate information on the number of Iraqis wounded.
The blast leveled the building, and Italian defense officials said they expect the death toll to rise because some people are reportedly trapped under rubble. (Berlusconi defiant about Iraq)
A car had a detonator and was loaded with explosives, but it wasn't clear whether a truck also was carrying explosives, defense officials said.
The Ministry of Defense said there are 2,500 Italians based in Iraq.
The blast occurred in the wake of a CIA report warning that security problems in Iraq will worsen.
In other violence, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy late Tuesday near the Iraqi capital, killing one U.S. soldier, according to a military spokeswoman.
There were no other casualties reported in the attack, which occurred about 11 p.m. (3 p.m. EST), she said.
The soldier, a member of Taskforce Iron Horse, was on combat patrol west of Taji, just north of Baghdad, she said.
"They were traveling in armored vehicles when an IED (improvised explosive device) went off under one of the vehicles," the spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces have detained a man suspected of shooting down a Black Hawk helicopter last Friday, killing all six U.S. military personnel on board near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, according to military sources within the 4th Infantry Division.
Acting on information from local Iraqis, some 200 U.S. forces from the 4th Infantry launched four overnight raids in east Tikrit and the nearby town of al-Alam, netting 36 suspected insurgents -- including the man suspected of shooting down the Black Hawk. Also arrested were five of the man's alleged accomplices, the sources said.
The eight-hour raid, dubbed "Operation Raider Justice," ended about 6 a.m. Wednesday (10 p.m. EST Tuesday) and was the largest offensive in nearly two months, the sources said.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who controls coalition ground forces in Iraq, said Tuesday that the Black Hawk appeared to have been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade during "a vulnerable time" as it attempted to land.
Last Friday, two Black Hawk helicopters were flying along the Euphrates River near Tikrit when witnesses said one was struck by enemy fire.
The helicopter, carrying passengers from the 101st Airborne Division headquarters in Mosul to the 4th Infantry Division headquarters in Tikrit, smashed into the ground. All six aboard were killed.
Pentagon sources said the lead helicopter -- the one not hit -- was carrying a two-star general, Maj. Gen. Thomas Romig, the Army's top lawyer.
Two of his staff members were aboard the other Black Hawk died in the crash, CNN's Nic Robertson reported.
Bremer in Washington
A senior administration source tells CNN that a recent CIA assessment of Iraq warned that the security situation would worsen across the country, not just in Baghdad.
The report is a much more negative assessment of the situation than has previously been forwarded through official channels, this source said.
Iraq's U.S. civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer, right, walks from the White House to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington on Tuesday.
It was sent to Washington on Monday by the CIA station chief in Iraq. (Full story)
It was not immediately clear if the assessment was what prompted a hastily arranged trip to Washington by Iraq civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer.
Bremer met Tuesday at the White House with President Bush and senior national security officials to discuss setbacks in Iraq's political transition and continuing security problems, administration officials said.
Few details about the meeting have emerged, but it comes at a moment in which the Bush administration is reportedly frustrated by growing instability in Iraq and by the performance of the interim Governing Council.
Thirty-nine U.S. troops have died this month, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war to 399. Since President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1, 260 U.S. servicemen and women have been killed.
There is no reliable source for Iraqi civilian or combatant casualty figures, either during the period of major combat or after May 1. The Associated Press reported an estimated 3,240 civilian Iraqi deaths between March 20 and April 20, but the AP said that the figure was based on records of only half of Iraq's hospitals, and the actual number was thought to be significantly higher.
Coalition troops fire at vehicle carrying Iraqi politician
U.S. military police humvee leads a convoy carrying visiting U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Anne Veneman to the Baghdad University department of agriculture on Wednesday.
Coalition forces Wednesday opened fire at a vehicle carrying Iraqi Governing Council member Muhammad Bahr al-Ulum near a heavily secured area of Baghdad, according to sources within the governing council.
The sources said there appeared to be a miscommunication between coalition soldiers guarding a security gate outside Baghdad's "Green Zone" and the occupants of the car, resulting in the gunfire.
One person in the car -- not al-Ulum -- was wounded in the shooting, the sources said. A large amount of blood was seen in al-Ulum's car after it dropped him off for a council meeting.
----------------------------
This is getting beyond ridiculous. Mr Bush give up your oil contracts now, and get the UN in Iraq ASAP.
We have a war to fight | |
