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Rodriguez offers details of Mosul dining hall attack

Aug-19-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

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By Gordon Trowbridge, Times staff writer

A December suicide attack at an Army dining hall in northern Iraq was likely the work of an Ansar al-Sunna terrorist group member who somehow sneaked through the base perimeter, a senior U.S. officer said Friday.

The comments by Army Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of coalition troops in northwest Iraq, were the most detailed explanation yet as to how the bomber made his way into line at the dining hall and blew himself up, killing 21 others in one of the deadliest and most worrisome insurgent attacks of the war. Military officials had not released significant details of the investigation before now.

Rodriguez said the investigation, which is complete, was unable to determine whether the bomber was a member of the Iraqi army, though he was wearing an Iraqi uniform during the attack. It is also unclear whether the man was an Iraqi native or had come from outside the country, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez, who briefed Pentagon reporters by video conference from Iraq, said investigators believe the attacker somehow penetrated the perimeter without passing through a base gate.

The Dec. 21 attack at Camp Marez, near Mosul, worried military commanders not only because of its lethality, but because it demonstrated insurgents could penetrate heavily protected U.S. bases. Previously, attacks on U.S. installations in Iraq had been limited to occasional and generally ineffective mortar and rocket launches from outside a base.

Security was tightened at bases throughout the country after the blast, and some analysts feared the attack would dissolve any trust between U.S. and Iraqi troops working side-by-side against the insurgency.

Ansar al-Sunna has operated in northern Iraq since well before coalition forces invaded the country in 2003. The Sunni Muslim extremist group has been responsible for dozens of high-profile attacks not only on coalition troops, but on officials of Kurdish ethnic political parties. The group is strongly linked to terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and to the al-Qaida network.

Rodriguez discussed other aspects of the counter-insurgency fight in northwest Iraq: [...]

Related:

Military: Mess tent bomber who killed Stryker troops wore Iraqi uniform, sneaked onto base - The Olympian


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