BAGHDAD, 6 August 2003 — An American civilian contractor working with the US military was killed in Iraq yesterday when his truck detonated an anti-tank mine in the hostile territory around Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.
Maj. Josslyn Aberle of the 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit told reporters the contractor, who worked for engineering and construction firm Kellogg Brown & Root, was traveling in a military convoy when the land mine exploded. “The employee died as a result of injuries sustained when his truck hit an anti-tank mine while on a routine mail run from central to northern Iraq,” Kellogg Brown & Root said.
The company, a subsidiary of Halliburton, has been assisting the US Army Corps of Engineers on projects including trying to get Iraq’s oil export pipeline to Turkey up and running, a key step in the reconstruction of the country. A guerrilla campaign against US forces has killed 53 American soldiers since Washington declared major combat over on May 1, but yesterday’s attack was the first in which a US civilian had been killed.
Aberle said three rocket-propelled grenades landed inside the main US base in Tikrit yesterday. Nobody was wounded when the grenades exploded in the sprawling complex, which was formerly one of Saddam’s many palaces. A rocket-propelled grenade was also fired at a police station in the restive town of Fallujah, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad. Two US soldiers were taken away in an ambulance as a crowd gathered, chanting support for Saddam.
“We sacrifice our blood and our souls for you, Saddam,” they shouted. The fugitive dictator has so far evaded capture despite a $25 million price on his head.
In Baghdad, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq warned that lack of security could deter donors from providing desperately needed aid to keep the country afloat in 2004. Ramiro Lopez da Silva said persistent insecurity and concerns about bankrolling a military occupation could make donors wary of committing funds at an October aid conference.
He said pledges of $5 billion were needed from the conference merely to keep Iraq’s creaking infrastructure and basic services from grinding to a halt next year.
US forces have mounted a series of raids in the rebellious “Sunni triangle” region north and west of Baghdad to hunt down guerrillas and search for Saddam. An army spokesman said nine suspects had been captured in raids over the past 24 hours.
