TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2004 WORLD THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 7A Fallujah bomber causes deadly day for Americans THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, Iraq — A suicide attacker sped up to a U.S. military convoy outside Fallujah and detonated an explosives-packed vehicle yesterday, killing seven Marines and three Iraqi soldiers, U.S. military officials said. It was the deadliest day for American forces in four months. The force of the blast on a dusty stretch of wasteland nine miles north of Fallujah, a hotbed of Sunni insurgents, wrecked two Humvee vehicles and hurled the suicide car's engine far from the site, witnesses and military officials said. The bombing underscored the challengers U.S. commanders face in securing Fallujah and surrounding Anbar province, the heartland of a Sunni Muslim insurgency bent on driving coalition forces from the country. U. S. forces have not patrolled in Fallujah since ending a three-week siege of the city in April that had been aimed at rooting out militiaman. Insurgents have only strengthened their hold on Fallujah since then. Early today, residents reported strong explosions around Baghdad. But the U.S. command said it had no information. Abdul Khader Sadl/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Saddam Hussein's deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, putting a stop to two days of conflicting statements about his purported arrest. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said medical tests confirmed that Iraqi authorities had once again mistakenly reported the capture of ousted dictator Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said unspecified tests had shown that a man being held in Iraqi custody was actually a relative of al-Douri who played only a minor, role in Saddam's regime but was nevertheless wanted by authorities. U. S. soldiers stand at the site of a massive car bomb attack on the outskirts of Fulujah, 40 miles northwest of Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday. Seven U.S. Marines and three Iraqi National Guard soldiers died in the apparent suicide attack, the U.S. military said. The reports on al-Douri — the most wanted Saddam-era henchman still at large — came as an embarrassment to interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government and exposed a lack of coordination among ministers competing for influence ahead of January elections. With yesterday's deaths, 990 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to a count by The Associated Press based on Defense Department figures. military had no confirmation Three soldiers were wounded yesterday in a roadside bombing in eastern Baghdad. After the suicide blast outside Fallujah, west of the capital, medical teams in helicopters ferried away the injured from the blazing wreckage and troops sealed off the area. Fallujah hospital officials said four Iraqis were wounded by gunfire from U.S. troops near the site of the bombing, but the U.S. The military condemned the bombing as "a desperate act of inhumanity" but insisted American troops would stay the course in Iraq until local forces are in a position to take over security operations. The slain Americans belonged to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. Hours after the attack, an unmanned U.S. spy plane crashed in Fallujah. Afterward, jubilant residents picked up pieces of debris and danced on the streets, displaying pieces of the aircraft to reporters, witnesses said. Since the Marine siege ended gunmen have been using the city as a base to manufacture car bombs and launch attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government forces. Fallujah has become a virtual no-go zone for U.S. troops, though American warplanes have repeatedly carried out airstrikes against alleged militant safe houses there. The car bombing resulted in the largest number of Americans killed in combat in a single day since May 2, when nine U.S. troops died in separate mortar attacks and roadside bombings in Baghdad, Ramadi and Kirkuk. Seven troops were killed on two days last month, but in each case, there were six Americans and one foreign coalition member who died. On Aug. 21, six U.S. service members and one Polish soldier died in combat, and six were killed on Aug. 15, along with a Ukrainian soldier. On Sunday, both Iraqi Minister of State Qassim Dawoud and a Defense Ministry spokesman publicly proclaimed al-Douri's capture. In the day, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said word of his arrest was "baseless." Kadhim, the Interior Ministry spokesman, did not, however, identify the al-Douri relative in custody, nor did he say when or where he was captured. "This will make the governa- ment lose credibility after its ministers and top officials appeared to be either liars or foolish," said Abdel Amir, an Iraqi political analyst and former editor of "Baghdad," the mouthpiece of Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party. Amir said the conflicting claims reflected the rivalry within the government between ministers from different ethnic, religious and political groups, each keen to showcase his own achievements or embarrass rivals. "It proved that they are very experienced and lack coordination. tion on such important issues," added Mohammed Abdel Jabar al-Shabout, editor of Baghdad's Al-Sabah newspaper. ' Also yesterday, a Turkish driver taken hostage in Iraq was released by his captors, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said. The release came a day after the driver's company announced it would withdraw from Iraq in line with his captors' demand Militants have already forced more than a half a dozen firms to quit Iraq through a spree of kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners working in the country. Agonized Russians begin two-day period of national mourning THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BESLAN, Russia — Funeral processions filled the rainy streets of this southern Russian city yesterday, carrying coffins large and small, as townspeople buried scores of victims of a carefully planned school siege that prosecutors linked to a Chechen rebel leader. Desperate families searched for those still missing from the siege at School No. 1, while others buried 120 victims during the first of two days of national mourning across Russia, which has seen more than 400 people killed in violence linked to terrorism in the past two weeks. Reports emerged that the attackers apparently planned the school seizure months ago, sneaking weapons into the building in advance. There also were signs that some of the militants did not know they were to take children hostage and may have been killed by their comrades when thev objected. State television sharply criticized government officials for understating the scope of the crisis, in which hundreds of hostages were held for 62 hours by heavily armed militants who reportedly demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. The school seizure came a day after a suicide bombing in Moscow killed 10 people and just over a week after two Russian passenger planes exploded and crashed, killing all 90 people aboard — two attacks authorities suspect were linked to Russia's ongoing war in Chechnya. Yesterday, wailing women stroked the coffins or kissed wooden stakes that bore the names of victims until tombstones could be put in place in Beslan's cemetery. A fuzzy, pink rabbit adorned one of the caskets. Criticism of the government response to the tragedy was mounting, with state television chiding officials for understating the magnitude of the crisis, for their slowness to admit that previous recent attacks were by terrorists and for their apparent paralysis. Liberal politician Irina Khakamada called for an independent investigation into the hostage crisis, the Interfax news agency reported. Khakamada said two questions had to be addressed: Whether the authorities had prior information about planned terrorist attacks, and what the government was doing to stabilize the situation in Chechnya. The school tragedy left few families untouched in the industrial town of 30,000, where many leave their doors unlocked. Most people had a relative, friend or neighbor killed or wounded. The official death toll stood at 335 yesterday, plus 50 attackers. 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