Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
Military bombs used inattack.
- - .- -" .. - ~ - -
againstUN
By' Neil MacFarquhar
and Dexter Filkins
BAGHDAD: The FBI team investigatiDi
,the suieide bombing at the UN
headquarters here determined Wednesday
that soine 1,500 pounds of explosiVes
drawn from Iraqi military
stocks, including a chunky old Soviet-
:;madè bomb, caused the massive explo-
; sion.
" A flatbed truck stacked with artil-
, lery shells, mortars and grenades - ,
with the SOO-pound, or 230-kilogram,
bomb of the"kind dropped from airplanes
used as the centerpiece - was
detonated outside the converted hotel
that housed numerQUs UN agencies. ':.
"I think the other munitions were
probably packed on top of it," said
Thomas Fuentes, the FBI special agent
in charge of operations in Iràq. "Some
. detonated, some did not."
At least one unexp.loded grenade was
found, he said. Teams' combiIig..the
rubble in hopes of..extracti~;,li few
people still missing who n:ûght have,.
b~n trapped had to work delicately
lest more such unexploded munition-'
suddenly erupted, he added.
Fuentes ad.de4 ,that,the truck was not,
driven into the wall sùlTounding the
compound, aswas initially thought, but .
had been driven up beside the wall He
said a similar vehicle was used in the
. attack on the Jordanian Embassy here
L~days ago that killed 17people, but he •
did not know what kind of explosives
were used in that incident. '
The official casualty toll for the UN
bombing stood at 20 dead, in addition
to the bomber, three missing and more
than 100 wounded, according to Salim
Lone, a UN spokesman.
Security was tightened Wednesday
all over Baghdad, particularly at the
Republican Palace, used as, the
headquarters for the U.S. military. 10.-
terriâtioilal nonprom groups like Doctors
Without Borders and the Save the
.Children Fund were also meeting Wed-
:nesday, presumably to discuss their fil-
, ture in Iraq and stepped-up, security
measures to protect their members.
The new. security concerns came
amid signs of strain between the United
States and the Iraqi Governing Council
At. issue is the role of the U.S.-appointed
council and its desire to take a
bigger role in running the country.
While the United States says it wants
the Ir~qis to be.more prominent in that
regard, council members apparently.
feel that the real power still rests with
L. Paul Bremer 3rd, Washington's top
civilian administrator here .
. Wednesday one of the. council's 25
members, Ahmad Chalabi, said supporters
of Saddam Hussein were behind
tJ1ecompound blast.
"Theré are 20 dead and there are
many believed still trapped iil there,"
Chalabi said after talks between members
of the council and Bremer.
"We have no doubt that those who
carried out this terrorist criminal act
are the remnants of the regime and their
friends, ".he added, although he provided
no evidence to support the claim.
UN workers at the compound were
told to stay home Wednesday, and arrangements
were put. in place to fly.
home workers who requested to leave.
In Stockholm, Secretary General Koti
Annan reiterated that the UN would not
pull out ofIraq because of the attack.
Annan was on his way back to New
York,where the Security Council was to
meet to discuss ways to better protect
UN workers in Iraq. The secretary general
made special mention of his "brilliant
colleague~' Sérgio Vieira de Mello,
55, Annan's special representative in
'.J
,
, , ' Rablh Moghrabi/Agence France.Presse
Rescue ,:"orkers looking for casualties after a bo~ attack Thesday at the hotel that houses the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
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