Mosul, Iraq, Strike Was Suicide Attack, Myers Says (Update1)
Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. military investigators concluded that yesterday's attack on a U.S. military base in Mosul, Iraq, was the work of a suicide bomber, Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.
At least 22 people were killed in the attack, Myers said at a Pentagon news briefing, including 13 U.S. soldiers and five U.S. civilians. Among the dead was a ``non-U.S. person,'' he said. Sixty- nine people were wounded, including 44 soldiers, he said.
``If it was a rocket, you'd find remnants of the rocket. If it were an improvised explosive device, I'm sure you'd find remnants,'' Myers said. ``This attack is the responsibility of the insurgents, the same insurgents who attacked on 9/11. The way you prevent this is to win the war on extremism.''
The attack, among the deadliest on U.S. forces since the March 2003 invasion, demonstrated the persistent security threat in the country a little more than a month before nationwide elections are due to be held. There are few safe areas in Iraq, Myers and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged at today's news conference.
`No Front Lines'
``We have no front lines, the front lines can be the dining hall, the mayor's office,'' Myers said. ``They operate everywhere. It's going to be very tough. As this insurgency has changed and it's become more intense, and our resolve has to be all that much tougher.''
Myers said the U.S. military effort would focus on pacifying Mosul, as well as Ramadi and Fallujah in the west-central part of the country, ahead of the elections. The biggest threat, said Rumsfeld, is that Iraqis may be too afraid to participate.
``Intimidation is the kind of thing that can prevent people from providing intelligence, that can prevent people from running for office, that can prevent people from stepping forward to vote,'' said Rumsfeld, 72, who has drawn increasing criticism in the past two week from Democratic and Republican lawmakers who accuse him of failing to adequately protect the troops in Iraq or send enough to improve security enough to allow a national election planned for Jan. 30.
Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said they ``no confidence'' in Rumsfeld, while Democratic leaders including Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader, have called on President George W. Bush to fire Rumsfeld.
More `Targets'
More troops, Rumsfeld said today, ``creates targets, and that's just the reality.''
``The task for the coalition, for the United States and for the Iraqi people is to have the Iraqi people take over responsibility for their own security,'' Rumsfeld said. ``Our principle job is to work with the Iraqis so that there is a penalty for the kind of behavior one sees with a suicide bomber'' attack.
Rumsfeld also continues to face questions from lawmakers about efforts to supply armored vehicles to Iraq. Including medium and heavy trucks and Humvees, about 39 percent of the military's vehicles in Iraq are unarmored. When a soldier asked Rumsfeld during a ``town meeting'' even with troops in Kuwait, Rumsfeld replied that, ``You go to war with the Army that you have.''
He was also attacked for using a machine to sign letters to the families of military service members killed in Iraq. More than 1,300 U.S. military personnel have died to date in Iraq, and more than 10,000 have been wounded.
``When I meet with the wounded, with their families, or the families of those have been lost, their grief is something I feel to my core,'' Rumsfeld said.