- TALAFAR, Iraq -- Suicide
bombers, one in a car and another on foot, blew themselves up at the gates
of two U.S. military bases Tuesday, wounding 61 U.S. soldiers but failing
to inflict deadly casualties as have many recent attacks in Iraq.
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- Most of the soldiers were slightly hurt by debris and
flying glass, indicating that massive defenses -- sand barriers, high cement
walls and numerous roadblocks leading to the entrances of bases -- have
paid off for U.S. troops occupying Iraq.
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- At the same time, the decision of the suicide bombers
to test U.S. defenses reflected the tenacity of an enemy that seeks to
undermine U.S. resolve by inflicting mass casualties with one strike.
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- The image of U.S. soldiers increasingly hunkered down
in fortified bases could also undermine their efforts to befriend Iraqis
as a U.S.-led occupation force tries to rebuild Iraq and introduce democracy
while fighting a persistent insurgency in some parts of the country.
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- On Tuesday, a U.S. Army observation helicopter took fire
and made an emergency landing west of Baghdad, and the two crew members
walked away with "minimal injuries," the U.S. military said.
Residents said the helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
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- The OH-58 Kiowa observation helicopter landed near Fallujah,
a focus of resistance to the U.S. occupation. The town sits in the heart
of the Sunni triangle, where the majority of attacks on U.S. forces have
occurred since the ouster of Saddam Hussein.
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- Meanwhile, Iraq's interim government voted to establish
a war crimes tribunal to prosecute top members of Saddam's regime, two
people who attended the meeting said. The tribunal will be formally established
today, when the U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, temporarily
cedes legislative authority to the Iraqi Governing Council so that it can
create the court.
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- Also Tuesday, diplomats said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan plans to name Ross Mountain, a veteran U.N. humanitarian relief official
from New Zealand, as his interim envoy to Iraq. He will temporarily replace
Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in the Aug. 19 bombing of U.N. headquarters
in Baghdad.
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- In the larger of the two suicide bombings Tuesday, a
man drove up to the gate of a base of the 101st Airborne Division in Talafar,
235 miles northwest of Baghdad, at 4:45 a.m. Tuesday, the military said.
Guards at the gate and in a watchtower opened fire and the vehicle blew
up, leaving a large crater at the gate's entryway.
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- Most soldiers were asleep in their barracks, and there
was no traffic around the gate. Roadblocks had forced the assailant to
drive slowly, giving guards enough time to fire. A cement wall blunted
the blast.
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- Col. Michael Linnington, commander of the division's
3rd Brigade, said the attacker's remains were "all over the compound."
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- A statement from Central Command said 31 soldiers were
wounded, but Maj. Trey Cate, a division spokesman, put the number at 59.
Both said most of the injuries were minor.
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- "Eight soldiers were medically evacuated, of which
four were sent to Baghdad," Cate said. The other 51 soldiers were
slightly wounded by debris and flying glass, he said.
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- An Iraqi working as a translator also was wounded in
the blast, which damaged nearby homes. Several other civilians, including
a 2-year-old girl, were hurt by flying glass.
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- Pieces of the attacker's car were scattered hundreds
of yards away. A school across the street from the base was heavily damaged,
but no students were injured because the bomb exploded before classes began.
At a nearby mosque, glass was scattered on the carpets and some lights
were blown out.
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- Hazem Ismail, a 40-year-old schoolteacher, said several
pieces of the car hit his house, shattering the window of the room where
his five children were sleeping.
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- "The kids woke up terrified from their beds, but
thank God none of them were harmed," he said.
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- Later Tuesday, a man acting suspiciously walked toward
the gates of a U.S. base in Husseiniya, 15 miles northeast of Baghdad,
said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, a U.S. military spokeswoman. When military police
opened fire, he activated an explosive device and blew himself up. Two
soldiers were slightly wounded.
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- Many potential military and international targets in
Baghdad and elsewhere have tightened security, apparently prompting attackers
to turn to civilian targets in their campaign to destabilize the country
and undermine the U.S.-led administration.
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