World

Iraq Points Finger In Triple Blast

November 2, 2005 / 7:20 AM EST / CBS/AP

Iraq's government Tuesday blamed a Syria-based Moroccan for the triple car bomb attack that killed at least 60 people last month north of Baghdad, as the country's defense minister called on Arab governments to demand that Syria curb the movement of foreign fighters into this country.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in central Iraq the day before, raising to at least 93 the number of U.S. service members who died in October, the fourth deadliest month for the troops in the Iraq war.

In a statement, the Iraqi government identified the Moroccan as Muhsen Khayber, also known as Abdul-Majid al-Libi and Abdul-Rahim, who is also sought in his homeland for the terror bombings in Casablanca in May 2003.

The statement alleged that Khayber masterminded the Sept. 29 attack in which three vehicles exploded almost simultaneously in Balad, a mainly Shiite market town 50 miles north of Baghdad.

At least 60 people were killed and about 70 were injured. Iraqi officials offered an unspecified reward for information leading to Khayber's arrest.

Iraqi officials did not cite any evidence to link Khayber to the Balad attacks but have long maintained that foreign Islamic extremists play a major role in the wave of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Iraqis in recent months.

In other developments:

At a Pentagon briefing Tuesday, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Peter Pace, told reporters that the Department of Defense is not surprised with the increase in violence, pointing to the recent vote on the new Iraqi constitution. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that as the December election nears, more violence is expected and perhaps more troops will be brought into the area to help with security.

At least four roadside bombs exploded Tuesday — three in Baghdad and one south of the capital — killing two Iraqis and wounding four others. Drive-by shootings killed two police officers and an Iraqi physician in the capital, officials said.

In Washington, Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, demanding answers about intelligence that led to the Iraq war. Republicans derided the move as a political stunt. In a speech on the Senate floor, Democratic leader Harry Reid said the American people and U.S. troops deserved to know the details of how the United States became engaged in the war, particularly in light of the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

A U.S. military investigating officer on Tuesday recommended a court-martial for a National Guard soldier charged with killing two of his superiors in Iraq and raised the possibility of a death sentence. Col. Patrick Reinert said he found "reasonable cause" to believe that Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez of Troy, N.Y., used an anti-personnel mine and three grenades to kill a captain and a lieutenant in a "personal vendetta."

On Tuesday, 500 detainees were released from Abu Ghraib, the notorious U.S.-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, to mark Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim religious holiday that concludes the Ramadan holy month of fasting.

Elsewhere, an Internet message posted Tuesday in the name of al Qaeda in Iraq said two kidnapped Moroccans were to stand trial in an Islamic court. On Oct. 25, the group claimed to have abducted the two, identified by the Moroccan government as Abdelkrim el Mouhafidi and Abderrahim Boualam, employees of its Baghdad embassy who were kidnapped while driving back from Jordan. The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.

Suspected insurgents opened fire on six Iraqi contractors after they left the U.S. air base in Taji where they were working about 12 miles north of Baghdad, killing four of them and seriously wounding the other two, said police Maj. Felah al-Mohammedawi. Militants often threaten to kill any Iraqi civilians who work with U.S. or Iraqi forces.

In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, a suicide attacker detonated explosives hidden beneath his clothes while lunging at a police patrol stuck in traffic, wounding the city's police commander and his driver, police said.

Spanish authorities, however, believe Khayber was part of a network linked to Ansar al-Islam, an Islamic extremist group based in northern Iraq, which recruited foreign fighters to go to Iraq to battle the U.S.-led coalition.

The Iraqi statement said Khayber moved last year to Syria "where he helped organize terrorist cells for foreign terrorists" who were sent to neighboring Iraq. Arab media said Khayber was arrested in Syria in May 2004 and handed over to the Moroccans.

Efforts to reach Moroccan authorities to confirm the report were unsuccessful because business offices had closed for the breaking of the Ramadan fast.

However, a Moroccan analyst who attended high school with Khayber, Abdellah Rami, said he doubted Khayber was in custody because he still sends money to his two wives in the Moroccan city of Larache, where he was born in 1970. He also said Khayber was a vehement critic of Shiites, the main victims of the Balad attacks.

"Khayber used to support the killings of Shiites in Pakistan or the killing of Christians, even before Sept. 11," Rami said. "He became very animated in the discussions, very fanatic."

Syria has denied any support for Iraqi insurgent groups and insists that it is trying to control the porous border.

But in a meeting with reporters, Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi warned Damascus government against interferring in Iraq and called on Arab governments to pressure Damascus to crack down on Iraqi opposition groups operating from Syrian soil.

Al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab like most of the insurgents, said that more than 400 foreign fighters, mostly Egyptians, have been arrested in Iraq but gave no timeframe.

He said foreign fighters are met at Damascus airport, trained for two to three weeks and are then sent across the border into Iraq.

"The silence of the Arab regimes regarding the Syrian role in Iraq is as if they approve," said al-Dulaimi told reporters. "I call on all the Arab regimes to pressure the Syrian brothers to put an end to the spilling of the Iraqi blood. I don't want to say more because this is a painful and sad issue to me."

Al-Dulaimi said he had told the Syrians repeatedly to stop "playing with your destiny and the destiny of Iraq. Iraq will not be turned into a new Lebanon." Syria controlled from 1976 until it withdrew its troops last April under international pressure following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Iraqi allegations of a Syrian role were made as Damascus faces mounting international pressure to cooperate in the U.N. investigation into the assassination of Hariri last February.

On Monday, the U.N. Security Council warned of possible "further action" if Syria does not cooperate with a U.N. investigation that has implicated top Syrian officials in the assassination.

More from CBS News