U.S. Embassy struck on eve of Iraq vote

[Umm-Qasr]

U.S. Embassy struck on eve of Iraq vote


http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/WORLD/meast/01/29/iraq.main/top.embassy.blast.gif
A rocket attack hit the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone today, killing a U.S. military member and a civilian, U.S. sources said. The embassy attack followed two earlier bombings that killed at least eight people at a U.S.-Iraqi military center. Iraqi officials said that voting in Sunday's elections will foil the terrorists.

[achilles]

By Luke Baker and Khaled Yacoub Oweis
BAGHDAD (*******) - Insurgents hit the U.S. embassy with an audacious rocket strike on Saturday that killed two Americans and wounded four, and also killed 17 Iraqis and an American soldier on the eve of Iraq's landmark election.

Militants who have sworn to turn the poll into a bloodbath and kill anyone who dares to vote frequently fire rockets and mortars at Baghdad's fortresslike Green Zone, but Saturday's attack was the first in months to cause Western casualties.

The rocket struck the American compound after dark, setting off an explosion that could be heard throughout the city center. Most of the U.S. embassy's nearly 1,500 staff work in the compound, part of Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace.

"It hit near the embassy building," embassy spokesman Bob Callahan said. "There are two dead and four who are wounded ... all Americans."

The attack deepened fears of an insurgent blitz on election day and demonstrated their ability to strike at the heart of the interim government and American power in the Green Zone, a vast complex on the west bank of the Tigris river.

It could also worsen Iraqis' fears of voting on Sunday in the country's first multi-party election in half a century.

Before the embassy attack, Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urged fractious religious and ethnic groups to vote and defy "enemies trying to break us and to break our world."

Even as U.S.-trained security forces barricaded streets, sealed land borders and closed Baghdad airport, more than a dozen polling stations were attacked and bloodshed continued to overshadow the final electoral countdown.

A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier in Baghdad, raising to 1,088 the number of troops killed in action since March 2003.

A suicide bomber struck a U.S.-Iraqi security center in the town of Khanaqin, northeast of Baghdad. The U.S. military said three Iraqi soldiers and five civilians were killed.

Al Qaeda's network in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility and threatened mayhem when voters go to the polls from 7 a.m. on Sunday (11 p.m. EST Saturday).

continued-1 (http://www.*******.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7474245&pageNumber=1)

continued-2 (http://www.*******.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7474245&pageNumber=2)

May the victims RIP. I hope that tomorrow the elections will proceed as scheduled and we will not witness another bloodbath.

[American Patriot]

Stupid article doesn't state that the enemy who fired the rocket were captured.

[achilles]

Stupid article doesn't state that the enemy who fired the rocket were captured.

You have two choices at this point: either accept the possibility that the enemy who fired the rocket was captured after the article had been written or sue *******. :D

[usa320]

Stupid article doesn't state that the enemy who fired the rocket were captured.

You have two choices at this point: either accept the possibility that the enemy who fired the rocket was captured after the article had been written or sue *******. :D

They showed a UAV video of the guys that fired it... They knew they were screwed, they scattered like ants. They got picked up like 5 minutes later. They definately got owned.