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Defense Department Operational Update Briefing

Dec-22-2004 » Filed Under: TF Olympia

The transcript is worth reading in full. Excerpt below.

Link to Transcript

GEN. MYERS: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and good afternoon.

I wish to also extend my sincere condolences to the families of our forces who have lost their lives throughout this conflict and this war against extremism. Of course, most recently we regret the loss of life in yesterday's attack in Mosul.

And here's what we know about the attack.

Shortly after noon yesterday, anti-Iraqi, anti-coalition forces attacked the dining facility located within the Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, killing 22 people, including 13 U.S. military, five U.S. civilian contractors, three Iraqi security force members and one non-U.S. person. An additional 69 people were injured in the attack, including 44 U.S. military, seven U.S. contractors, five Department of Defense civilians, two Iraqi civilians, 10 contractors of other nationalities and one of unknown nationality and occupation.

Twenty-five of the 69 who were wounded were returned to duty. Many of the wounded, as we've seen on TV, are being transported now to Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany.

Investigators are about to conclude their look into the exact cause of the blast. At this point it looks like it was an improvised explosive device worn by an attacker. This will be put in a statement that will come out of MNF-I in a couple of hours from Baghdad.

I assure you that everything possible is being done to get to the bottom of what happened and to take the appropriate steps so we can prevent potential future attacks of this nature.


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