World

Deadly Attack On Iraq Guard HQ

October 19, 2004 / 12:45 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A mortar attack on an Iraqi National Guard headquarters north of Baghdad on Tuesday killed four guardsmen and wounded 80 others, the U.S. military said. The director of CARE International in Iraq was kidnapped in the latest attack targeting humanitarian organizations.

The guardsmen were lined up in formation when six mortars hit the National Guard offices in an early morning attack in Mashahidah, 25 miles north of Baghdad, said international officials and National Guard officers under condition of anonymity.

The U.S. military cited the Iraqi Defense Minister as saying four guard members were killed and 80 others wounded. The military said multinational forces helicopters helped ferry out the wounded.

The Iraqi National Guard has been a frequent target of insurgents trying to undermine U.S.-led security efforts ahead of January national elections.

In other developments:

In a Washington Post report, U.S. officials and election experts said the United Nations has been unable to fully staff its operation in Iraq, imperiling the timing and quality of the elections there and forcing inexperienced Iraqis to take the lead in preparing for the country's first democratic balloting, due in January. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan speaking to reporters in Ireland on Friday, distanced the world body from the vote, saying the U.N. "is not going to Iraq to monitor the elections in January. Our role is to support and advise the Iraqi authorities as they organize the elections," he said. "They are responsible for the elections, and they have ownership of those elections."

The director of CARE International's operation in Iraq was kidnapped early Tuesday in Baghdad, the organization said. Margaret Hassan, said to be an Iraqi national, was abducted in the capital at 7:30 a.m., CARE International, United Kingdom said in a statement released in London and read to The Associated Press in Baghdad.

In northern Iraq, saboteurs attacked and set on fire a key oil pipeline that connects the Beiji oil refinery with Turkey, police said Tuesday.

A U.S. 1st Infantry Division Soldier died from a non-combat injury at a base in Diyala province, the U.S. military said Tuesday. The soldier was found at late Sunday in his living quarters after he did not return to his guard post. The incident is under investigation. The name of the soldier is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Tuesday that Britain needs to redeploy troops closer to Baghdad so that the insurgency in central Iraq can be dealt with ahead of Iraqi elections. The government is considering a U.S. request for a small number of British troops to be moved nearer the Iraqi capital to free up American forces for anti-insurgency operations.

In a response to violence, Australia's government said Tuesday that it was moving its embassy in Baghdad into the strife-torn city's heavily fortified Green Zone.

U.S. troops battled insurgents Tuesday in a major city west of Baghdad after the U.S. command said it destroyed several weapons storage sites and safehouses of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the militant bastion Fallujah.

The two operations were part of a stepped up campaign to curb Sunni Muslim extremists before January's national elections and bring the volatile region west of the capital under government control.

Residents of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, said fighting raged near the city hall and a Humvee was ablaze. There were no reports of casualties.

In Baghdad, the U.S. command said the late night attacks in Fallujah occurred around midnight but did not specify whether they were airstrikes.

"Multiple secondary explosions indicate a significant amount of explosives or ammunition inside the houses," the statement said.

It said recent attacks had forced leadership changes in al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad movement and the strikes late Monday targeted possible replacement leaders. Tawhid and Jihad has claimed responsibility for many car bombings and the beheading of hostages.

The strikes came shortly after Fallujah's chief negotiator, Sheik Khaled al-Jumeili, ruled out any quick resumption of talks to find a peaceful solution to the standoff in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.