[NYTr] Military probes origin of mess hall blast

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

sent by Bob Richards

CNN - Dec 22, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/22/iraq.main/index.html

Military probes origin of mess hall blast

KUWAIT CITY (CNN) -- Investigators in Iraq are looking into whether 
an explosion that killed 22 in a mess hall was caused by a bomb 
placed inside the tent or by a mortar or rocket attack from outside.

Initial reports speculated that it may have been a rocket attack, 
but Task Force Olympia spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Hastings said 
Wednesday "the cause is unknown." FBI forensic experts were flown to 
the scene of the blast at Camp Marez outside Mosul.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz said it was "certainly a possibility" that a 
bomb was placed inside the tent. "That's the reason we have our 
experts up there," he said.

Metz said the forensic experts should be able to narrow down the 
cause by examining the materials that were used to make the device.

Asked whether witnesses heard a sound like that of an incoming 
rocket, Metz said wasn't sure, but "the ones that I have heard, 
you're right -- there is a distinct noise from an incoming missile."

Stainless steel kitchen equipment inside the tent was pitted with 
circular holes -- a possible sign of ball bearings used as shrapnel 
to increase the deadliness of a bomb, Hastings said.

"There are perfectly round perforations around the dining hall, in 
the stainless steel service equipment," Hastings said. They were 
"very symmetrical perforations, like ball bearings or bb's."

In a revision to an earlier casualty toll, Lt. Col. Steve Boylan on 
Wednesday said 22 people -- 14 U.S. soldiers, four U.S. civilians 
and four Iraqi security forces -- died in Tuesday's explosion. 
Seventy-two people were wounded, including 51 soldiers.

The death toll puts the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war 
at 1,320, including 1,038 killed in hostile action and 282 killed in 
nonhostile activities, according to the U.S. military.

The attack was one of the deadliest single incidents for American 
troops since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, and the one-day 
toll was the worst since the early days of the invasion.

Between 40 and 50 of the wounded -- many in critical condition -- 
arrived in Germany on Wednesday for treatment at the U.S. military's 
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
Remains arrive in Kuwait

At a desert military base outside of Kuwait City early Wednesday, 
the bodies of U.S. soldiers killed in the attack arrived on a C-130 
cargo plane.

"Very quietly, very deliberately the remains in body bags ... were 
brought off by the soldiers who saluted their fallen comrades," 
CNN's Barbara Starr reported. "They were placed very reverently in 
some vehicles and then driven off to mortuary affairs specialists 
here at the Air Force facility in Kuwait. Eventually the remains 
will be returned to the United States.

Jeremy Redmon, a newspaper reporter embedded in Iraq with troops at 
Camp Marez, told CNN the blast "knocked soldiers off their feet and 
out of their seats." (Full story)

Messages on Islamist Web sites said the Iraqi militant group Jaish 
Ansar Al-Sunna claimed responsibility, calling it a suicide attack 
carried out by one person. CNN could not confirm the authenticity of 
the claim.

The group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks, including 
the beheadings of a Turkish truck driver and a Kurdish official and 
the slayings of 12 Nepalese hostages. In its statement, it said it 
shot video of the attack to be released later.

In Washington, President Bush expressed his "heartfelt condolences" 
to the families of those killed, adding that U.S. troops in Iraq are 
engaged in a "vital mission." (Full story)
'A level of vulnerability'

CNN personnel who have visited Camp Marez said the dining area is a 
tent-like facility with no hardened protection -- and that soldiers 
had specifically raised concerns that they could be targeted by 
insurgents at meal time.

One had told CNN it was only a matter of time before there was an 
attack on the mess hall.

"There is a level of vulnerability when you go in there, and you 
don't feel like there's a hard roof over your head," said Lt. Col. 
Hastings.

Overall the base has good protection, Hastings said, and a new 
dining facility is being built.

Bill Nemitz, a reporter with the Press-Herald newspaper of Portland, 
Maine, who was embedded at the base, said the new facility is made 
of concrete and was originally set to be completed by Christmas, but 
construction had slowed and the building is not near completion.

Nemitz said the base's chief medical officer in April expressed 
concern about the mess hall being targeted and was charged with 
drawing up a "mass casualty" plan.

Mosul has been a site of repeated attacks in recent weeks. When the 
U.S. military launched a major offensive in Falluja in November, 
there was concern some insurgents had fled to Mosul and would launch 
attacks from there. The military recently conducted an offensive 
against insurgents in Mosul, but the violence has continued.