iraq says four convoys pushed back

GI dies, US soldier held for grenade attack
March 23 2003, 4:19 PM




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> Children among 50 killed in bombings:TV
> Saddam's party chief killed in desert battle: TV
> US forces attack Iraqi group accused of al-Qaeda link
> Iraq says 3 dead, 250 civilians wounded in Baghdad bombing
> Four US soldiers reported killed in central Iraq
> British reporters 'missing in Iraq'
> 7 crewmen killed as British navy choppers crash over Gulf
> Cavalry charges towards Baghdad; Nasiriyah taken
> US abandons Turkey option
> Blazing fuel trenches ring Baghdad with black smoke
> Iraq says 250 civilians wounded in Baghdad bombing
> Surrender talks underway with republican guard


An American soldier reportedly is dead and another is being held, suspected of carrying out a grenade attack on an army command tent in Kuwait which wounded 14 soldiers, four seriously, US military officials have said.

The soldier was in custody following the attack early today at the heavily-guarded camp of the 101st Airborne Division.

Time magazine reporter Jim Lacey, embedded with the 101st, told CNN a soldier had died as a result of the attack. A spokesman for the 101st said two grenades had been thrown into the command tent at Camp Pennsylvania, one of the desert bases from where US forces have launched an invasion of Iraq.

Ten of those wounded had superficial injuries, including puncture wounds to their arms and legs from fragments of the grenade, said George Heath, civilian spokesman for the 101st's home base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Eleven of the wounded were evacuated by helicopters to field hospitals in the area.

Colonel Chris Holden, head of a battalion of the 101st Airborne Division at nearby Camp New York, said he had stepped up patrols around his unit after the attack.

"When you have someone inside your camp who is dedicated to throwing a grenade inside a tent, there isn't much you can do," Holden told Reuters.

The attack, at first believed to be the work of terrorists, was today under investigation by the US Army Criminal Investigation Command.

"A suspect was taken into custody following the attack on elements of the 101st Airborne Division. The suspect is a soldier assigned to the division," it said in a statement.

The suspect was an engineer from the engineering platoon that was attached to one of the infantry battalions, said Colonel Frederick Hodges, the 1st Brigade's commander.

"We noticed four hand grenades were missing and that this sergeant was unaccounted for," Hodges said.

"We started looking for him and found him hiding here in one of these bunkers. He is detained and he is being interrogated right now."

US Army spokesman Max Blumenfeld said the motive for the attack "most likely was resentment". He did not elaborate.

The suspect has not been charged, he said. Investigators did not yet know if others were involved, Blumenfeld said.

The command tent, the tactical operations centre, runs 24 hours a day and would always be staffed by officers and senior enlisted personnel, Blumenfeld said.

Names of the wounded were not released, and Blumenfeld did not say if any high-ranking officers were hurt.

Time correspondent Lacey told CNN that he was about 18m away when the explosions occurred. "The carnage was pretty severe," Lacey said.

He said he interviewed an Army major who was sitting outside the tent. "He said he saw the grenade roll by him," Lacey said.

The 101st Airborne is a rapid deployment group trained to go anywhere in the world within 36 hours. The roughly 22,000 members of the 101st were deployed on February 6.

US troops have been on heightened alert for terror attacks since the United States and Britain launched war last week to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Security is always extremely tight at the Kuwait camps - the biggest of which, Camp Doha, has been running since the 1991 Gulf war.

A Kuwaiti is on trial for the premeditated murder of a US civilian contractor and the attempted murder of another in January, the first attack to target US civilians in Kuwait following a series of shootings involving US forces.

Last October, two Kuwaitis killed a US Marine and wounded another during war games. One of the two assailants - both also killed in the attack - had sworn allegiance to al Qa'eda chief Osama bin Laden, the interior minister said.

A Kuwaiti police officer is serving 15 years for wounding two US soldiers last year and last month, four Kuwaitis were handed five-year jail terms after being convicted of training with al Qa'eda and "joining the military forces of a foreign country which endangered Kuwait's political ties".

Britain's Sky TV reports that four US soldiers have been wounded in central Iraq, when reconnaissance scouts were ambushed while driving Humvee jeeps at the head of a column.

Children among 50 killed in bombings: TV
US-led airstrikes on the southern Iraqi city of Basra killed 50 people and injured 27 others, according to a report by the Qatari satellite television Al-Jazeera, which showed gruesome images of two dead children with their heads blown up lying on the floor of a hospital.

Another image showed five corpses lying side by side including that of a child. The correspondent said it was a family.

The injured were shown lying on the floor and on beds at the Al-Jumhuriya hospital which, according to Al-Jazeera, was plunged into darkness after electricity was cut off in the bombardment.

US ground troops had reached Basra today and were surrounding the city of some 1.5 million, located 550km southeast of Baghdad.

General Tommy Franks, head of the US command, said today he had no plans to move on Basra, Iraq's second city and main port, but would prefer to work with civilians there ``who are welcoming the forces as they come in''.

Saddam's party leader killed in desert battle: TV
Iraqi troops have clashed with US-led forces in the desert around the town of Najaf, 160 km south of Baghdad, according to Iraqi television. The report said the leader of Saddam Hussein's Baath party in Najaf had been killed in the clashes.

Najaf is the closest point to Baghdad where ground fighting has been reported since the war began on Thursday.

US forces attack Iraqi group accused of al-Qaeda link
The Pentagon confirmed today a strike against an Islamist group in northern Iraq that the United States accuses of ties to al-Qaeda.

``At this point we continue to have special operating forces in the north. In fact there was a strike as part of last night's operation against the facility ... Khurmal. We're still gathering battle damage assessment from that,'' army Major General Stanley McChrystal, vice director for operations on US military's Joint Staff, told a media briefing.

A Kurdish faction running part of northern Iraq had earlier today said US forces fired missiles and launched an air raid on the stronghold of Ansar al-Islam.

Iraq says four convoys pushed back
Iraq claims its ground forces have pushed back four convoys of US and British forces in the south of the country and destroyed 21 US cruise missiles.

``With ferocious resistance in heroic battles, fighters from the 3rd regiment of Iraq's 47th infantry brigade... pushed back'' the convoys in the al-Faw, Basra, Nassiriyah, Rumeila and Samawa regions, the Iraq general command said, cited by the official Iraqi news agency.

It said local residents had taken up arms to join the fighting.

The statement also said Iraqi forces had ``foiled an attempt by American soldiers to parachute in'' the al-Qaim region near the border with Syria.

``Other Iraqi units carried out several combat missions against the American invaders, wounding several of them and destroying an armoured vehicle,'' it said.