By TAREK AL-ISSAWI, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops came under renewed attacks Saturday that wounded at least four soldiers, and a team of FBI (news - web sites) investigators prepared to take control of the probe into the car bombing of the Jordanian Embassy.
Soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade on patrol in the northern city of
Kirkuk were fired on with a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms early
Saturday, said Lt. Col. Bill McDonald, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division
operating in the area.
Two soldiers were wounded in the explosion and were in stable condition,
McDonald said. The troops returned fire, he said.
Also Saturday, soldiers west of Kirkuk opened fire on a car that ran a
military checkpoint, wounding two Iraqis, McDonald said. The victims were
evacuated to a Kirkuk hospital in stable condition, he said.
In south-central Baghdad, two soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack
on their armored Humvee vehicle, said Maj. Todd Mercer of the 82nd Airborne
Division.
Thursday's bombing of the Jordanian Embassy, which killed 19 people and
injured at least 50 raised fears that al-Qaida-linked terrorists were at work in
Iraq (news
- web
sites). The bombing was the first large-scale terrorist attack since Baghdad
fell to U.S. forces April 9.
Authorities are looking at Ansar al-Islam, which U.S. officials claim is
linked to al-Qaida, as a potential suspect, according to Lt. Gen. Norton
Schwartz, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"The one organization that we have confidence and that we know is in Iraq and
in the Baghdad area is Ansar al-Islam," he said. "It is unknown whether this
particular organization was associated with the (bombing). Perhaps that'll
become clear as we go down the road.
"But that is an al-Qaida-related organization and one that we are focusing
attention on," Schwartz said.
Fewer than a dozen FBI agents were dispatched to secure and analyze evidence.
They also will train Iraqi investigators. It was not clear when the team would
begin work or how long it would stay.
"We will do all we can to help the Iraqi authorities find these people and
bring them to justice," L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, said in
a press release distributed by the Pentagon (news
- web
sites).
The Bush administration fears Iraqi police don't have the techniques or tools
to properly investigate the deadly attack, according to a senior Justice
Department (news
- web
sites) official, speaking on condition of anonymity from Washington.
So far, American authorities have said, they do not believe terrorist groups
like Ansar or any other foreign fighters have played a major role in the
guerrilla war against American occupation forces.
They believe instead that the attacks are the work of remnants of Saddam
Hussein (news
- web
sites)'s regime — his Republican Guard, Fedayeen militia and intelligence
services.
Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Ansar al-Islam was known for bombings and
assassinations of Kurdish figures. But the group, which has included veterans of
bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan (news
- web
sites), has not previously been linked to attacks on the scale of the
embassy blast.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news
- web
sites) said the group was a link between Baghdad and al-Qaida when he made
his case for war to the U.N. Security Council in February. Others have
questioned whether there was any connection to Saddam Hussein's regime.
U.S. forces knocked out Ansar-al-Islam's main headquarters in northeastern
Iraq early in the war. Bremer has said the group has been rebuilding in the
country, with surviving members filtering back from Iran.
___
AP writers D'Arcy Doran in Tikrit and Curt Anderson in Washington contributed
to this report. The
Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
