BAGHDAD, 19 February 2004 — International troops opened fire yesterday on two explosive-laden trucks that tried to plow through a Polish military camp south of Baghdad, triggering blasts that killed at least 13 people, including the two drivers and Iraqi civilians in a nearby neighborhood, coalition officials said.
More than 64 people were injured in the blasts, including at least 32 Iraqis, 12 Filipinos, 10 Poles, 10 Hungarians and an American, officials said. Polish Gen. Mieczyslaw Bieniek, commander of the 9,500-strong Polish military contingent, called it a “well coordinated terrorist attack.”
A coalition spokeswoman in the area, Hilary White, said the attack took place close to several homes located near the military camp and the Iraqi civilian dead included men, women and children.
The attack happened as members of the country’s Governing Council continued to push aside the US idea of holding regional caucuses to elect an interim government after the planned June 30 hand over.
The bombing happened after 7:15 a.m. when the explosive-laden trucks tried to drive near the front of Camp Charlie. Guards fired at the vehicles, causing one to explode, said Lt. Col. Robert Strzelecki. Another truck struck a concrete barrier and exploded. Eleven homes near the base collapsed in the blast and others were damaged, entire sides blown off. Debris littered the area.
Mohyee Mokheef, a 50-year-old cafe owner, who lives near the camp, said he was having breakfast with his family when he heard a faint first explosion and a second, louder one that shattered the windows in his home.
“I went out and walked toward the base and I saw about eight damaged houses,” he said. “I saw dead and injured Iraqis lying on the ground.”
Hungarian Defense Ministry spokesman Istvan Bocskai said two of the Hungarian soldiers were seriously wounded, but the injuries weren’t life threatening.
Around 300 people, mostly Iraqis, have been killed in suicide attacks across Iraq since the beginning of the year.
“I suspect that Ansar Al-Islam and Al-Qaeda were behind these operations because they want to create strife between Sunnis and Shiites and between the Shiites and Americans,” Mokheef said. “They want to derail the elections process.”
“The enemy’s strategy is fairly clear,” coalition military commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters yesterday in Tikrit. “They plan to isolate us from the Iraqi people.”
US officials have predicted an increase in attacks as the June 30 date for the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq approaches. Some insurgents fear their campaign could lose steam once power is returned to Iraqis, US officials believe. However, major differences remain on how to choose a new government.
In Baghdad, Mouwafak Al-Rubaie, a Shiite Arab member of the Governing Council, said yesterday that the idea of using caucuses to choose members of a provisional legislature was “gone with the wind,” adding that the only solution palatable to Iraqis are general elections — which Washington opposes before the June 30 power transfer.
“Anything else will make things worse and the results will be damaging to Iraq,” he said. “Only elections will give the legitimacy needed for any future political process or body.”
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that the United States was committed to giving the Iraqi people control of their country by July 1 but remained open to ideas from the United Nations, which is expected to report this week, about how an interim government is chosen.
Council member Dara Nor Al-Din, a Sunni Kurd, said the body was waiting “for the decisions reached by the United Nations on whether the elections are possible and what ideas they have to solve the problem.”
