General: Bomber Not With Iraq Nat'l Guard

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041226/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_commander

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"Certainly he was not a member of the National Guards because all of our men stationed in the base have been accounted for," Gen. Babaker B. Shawkat Zebari said in an interview.


On Tuesday, an attacker blew himself up in a crowded mess hall at the Marez base just south of Mosul, Iraq (news - web sites)'s third-largest city, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. The explosion, the deadliest strike on a U.S. military facility in Iraq, triggered a wide-ranging investigation into how the attacker penetrated the heavily guarded area.


The base also was used by members of Iraq's fledgeling security forces. Three members of the Iraqi National Guard — a paramilitary internal security force — were also killed in the blast.


The U.S. military said it appeared likely that an individual in an Iraqi military uniform, who was probably wearing an explosives-laden vest — carried out the attack.


"That is possible because uniforms of National Guards, police and army are available in the market," said Zebari. "It is not difficult for a person to wear one."


He suggested that the bomber could have been someone who frequently came in and out of the base, such as the numerous local workers who did cleaning, laundry and other chores.