John McCain, in a Washington Post opinion piece, calls for more troops, civilian advisors, and resources to be put aside to rebuild Iraq. He also speaks of the "distrust many Iraqis hold for the United Nations," and argues that a U.N - led reconstruction would not have any more legitimacy within Iraq than the Coalition reconstruction:

"Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, an able administrator, lacks resources and the political commitment to achieve his goal of Iraq's transformation. His operation is nearly broke, and he admits Iraq will need 'tens of billions' of dollars for reconstruction next year alone. Yet there is an insufficient sense of urgency in Washington, and needs on the ground in Iraq are going unmet.

Security remains a serious problem in Iraq partly because, contrary to administration assurances, our military force levels are obviously inadequate. A visitor quickly learns in conversations with U.S. military personnel that we need to deploy at least another division. We need more foreign troops, particularly from Muslim allies such as Turkey and Pakistan, but security does not necessarily improve with each new country that deploys forces. It is the number and quality of military forces, not the number of countries that send them, that matters."

An interesting article (for once!) from my hometown paper, The Boston Globe. This piece contains good data on the number of injuries our troops have sustained in Iraq, and what our military does to keep them alive:

"Roughly one in seven soldiers wounded in combat in Iraq has died, according to figures released by US Central Command. In previous conflicts dating to World War II, one in every three or four soldiers died after combat wounds."

Widespread use of lightweight body armor, improved battlefield medicine, and the lack of Iraqi artillery use have all contributed to the US survival rate, according to medical authorities and military specialists."

Of course, this being the Globe, the article can't quite contain their disappointment at these soldiers being kept alive. After all, if the "danger level" was higher, the Globe thinks it would be easier to convince us to abandon Iraq:

"But that survival rate also may disguise the day-to-day danger level that coalition forces face in Iraq. Since most attention focuses on deaths, particularly those from ambushes and other combat, the higher numbers of wounded in Iraq have drawn relatively little attention. Since President Bush declared major combat operations over on May 1, a US soldier has been killed roughly every other day. During the same time period, an average of 4.5 troops have been wounded in combat each day."

Updating a previous post, "Coals to Newcastle" comes this correspondence, from the Chief Press Officer of the Iraqi Civilian Provisional Authority:

The title of this project should more accurately be "Weapons for Police and Security Forces".

In order to equip new security and defense forces here we had to plan for bringing in large numbers of weapons and these had to be new and have the usual support package with them.

The reason for going with the AK47s is that Iraqis have experience of them. There is also the issue of ammunition and parts availability. And lastly, the cost.

The first 1,000 were purchased from Jordan. They are new and were delivered in a matter of days. The Coalition Military Assistance Training Team (CMATT) now has the weapons as training is about to begin for the initial battalion of the NIA.

The remaining 34,000 are out for bid on open source contract via the CPA website www.cpa-iraq.org.

Bids close on August 8, 2003 and delivery dates requested are: 11,000 on August 20; 11,000 on August 27; and 12,000 on September 3.

We do not have vast stocks of new AK47s, certainly not the 100,000 you refer to or even 100s. If you know where they are please tell us!

The correspondence, mixed with some relevant Op-Ed, is at Seam LaFreniere's blog.

Prior to and during the war in Iraq, New Yorker reporter Jon Lee Anderson offered what I considered the most balanced, insightful, and prescient on-site reporting of conditions in Baghdad and the region available. Last February the New Yorker published Anderson’s account of his interview with Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, the Shia cleric killed in Friday’s Najaf car bombing (al-Hakim was in exile in Tehran at the time), and they have just re-posted the article on the New Yorker site. I read the article in February and found it extremely insightful, and given the increasing conflict in the Sunni triangle it’s even more so now. I offer it as recommended reading to all who visit this site. (Note that this is a cross-post.)

My, how things of changed since Dutch was in charge. From VOA:

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country would support an international force in Iraq under U.S. command. But Mr. Putin, speaking in Sardinia where he was the guest of the Italian prime minister, added, however, that such a decision must be taken by the United Nations Security Council.

The first four arrested sang like birds, and the number of those in custody continues to grow ... this report comes via the Guardian:

Police have arrested 19 men - many of them foreigners and all with admitted links to al-Qaida - in the car bombing of the Imam Ali shrine in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, a senior Iraqi investigator told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Two Iraqis and two Saudis grabbed shortly after the Friday attack gave information leading to the arrest of the others, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. They include two Kuwaitis and six Palestinians with Jordanian passports with the remainder Iraqis and Saudis, the official said, without giving a breakdown.

Initial information shows the foreigners entered Iraq from Kuwait, Syria and Jordan, the official said, adding that they belong to the Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam.

Mmm hmm. Editorial question: Is the picture of the enemy becoming any clearer to the Iraqi people?

Fox News reports on what the death of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim in the Najaf car bombing means for the balance of power in Iraq. The article provides some good background on al-Hakim's history and goals:

"Before the U.S.-led invasion, he formed the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the most prominent anti-Saddam groups. It has long advocated Islamic rule for Iraq.

Many had compared al-Hakim's return to that of Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who spent 14 years in exile in Iraq before returning to lead his country's 1979 Islamic revolution and head its clerical regime until his death in 1989.
...
On his return to Iraq, al-Hakim denounced the U.S.-led occupation forces. He demanded they withdraw and allow the country's people to establish their own government -- one Islamic in nature."

The war for Iraq has changed from a two-way contest between Saddam and the Coalition, into a battle with a multitude of players: international terrorists, Ba'athists, Coalition forces, United Nations bureaucrats, Iranian theocrats, and Coalition forces. It will be interesting to see how the different groups affect each other.

The Saudi interior minister is rejecting US claims that militants are crossing into Iraq from Saudi Arabia.

"These allegations are absolutely baseless and we have no information about any Saudi crossing from our borders into Iraq," Prince Nayef said in an interview published on Saturday.

"We will never allow this to happen and would not be lax with any Saudi who tries to interfere in Iraq's affairs."

Seems like old times: "Thisisnottrue! Thisisnottrue!! Youarenotreadingthis!!!" Read more at Reuters.

So say several news sources; I thought readers might like to see the take on this story from Al Bawaba (Jordan):

Iraqi police have detained four men in connection with the bombing of Najaf, and all have links to al-Qaeda, a senior police official told The Associated Press on Saturday.

The official said the four arrested men - two Iraqis and two Saudis - were caught shortly after the car bombing on Friday.

The police official, who led the initial investigation and interrogation of the captives, said the prisoners told of other plots to kill political and religious leaders and to damage vital installations such as power plants, water supplies and oil pipelines.

The official conveyed the bomb was made from the same type of materials used in the Aug. 19 bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and the Jordanian Embassy attack on Aug. 7, which killed 19.

The police official said the men arrested after the attack claimed the recent bombings were designed to keep Iraq in a state of chaos so that police and American occupation forces would be unable to focus attention on the country's porous borders, across which suspected foreign fighters are said to be infiltrating.

Bernard Lewis, scholar on Islam, has an excellent essay in the Wall Street Journal (registration required) on why Iraq is proving more difficult than Afghanistan. He analyzes the psychologoy of America's enemies, and suggests a future path for American policy:

"The main difference is that in Afghanistan there is an Afghan government, while in Iraq there is an American administration, and the cry of "American imperialism" is being repeated on many sides. Even the most cursory examination will reveal that this charge is ludicrously inept. America has neither the desire nor the skill nor--perhaps most important--the need to play an imperial role in Iraq. But the accusation--and its resonant echoes in the Western and even in the American media-- serve a very useful purpose for those whose complaints and purposes against America are in reality quite different.
...
What then should we do in Iraq? Clearly the imperial role is impossible, blocked equally by moral and psychological constraints, and by international and more especially domestic political calculations. An inept, indecisive imperialism is the worst of all options, with the possible exception of subjecting Iraq to the tangled but ferocious politics of the U.N. The best course surely is the one that is working in Afghanistan--to hand over, as soon as possible, to a genuine Iraqi government. In Iraq as in Afghanistan, a period of discreet support would be necessary, but the task would probably be easier in Iraq. Here again care must be taken. Premature democratization--holding elections and transferring power, in a country which has had no experience of such things for decades, can only lead to disaster, as in Algeria. Democracy is the best and therefore the most difficult of all forms of government. The Iraqis certainly have the capacity to develop democratic institutions, but they must do so in their own way, at their own pace. This can only be done by an Iraqi government." (Emphasis added)

The death toll is now at 75:

Officials at the Najaf Teaching Hospital said the blast killed at least 75 people, burning many beyond recognition. The hospital was treating at least 142 wounded people, officials said.

More dead and wounded probably were taken to other hospitals, officials said.

Iraqis are laying blame on Saddam's henchmen:

Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress and a member of the council, blamed Saddam and remnants of his regime for the attack at the mosque as well as the bombing earlier this month at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

"This outrage is designed to create the maximum damage to the people in Iraq, to create sectarian violence and sectarian strife," Chalabi said. "It is the work of Saddam."

Meanwhile, Chalabi calls for security to be handed over to Iraqis after Najaf outrage.

Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, the Shiite leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq was killed into today's bombing in Iraq.

Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim lived in exile in Iran for 20 years and returned in May after the U.S.-backed coalition expelled the regime of Saddam Hussein. Many Iraqi politicians considered him to be a relatively moderate voice in the Shiite community.

He had called for unity among Shiite groups and said that U.S. forces should leave Iraq.

In a speech in Basra, after his return from exile, Hakim said Iraq should have an independent government chosen by Iraqis. He told supporters: "We will not accept a government that is imposed on us."

He also rejected a secular government, saying it would not respect Islam.

"As a supreme council we call for an Islamic state because we are Islamic," he said in May, but "not at the exclusion of others."

The ayatollah did not support the war that ousted Saddam and was also a vocal critic of the U.S. presence in Iraq, saying in May it was in the "best interests of everyone for the Americans to leave as quickly as possible."

Full story at CNN..

[Fox News]

car bomb exploded during Friday prayers outside the holiest shrine for Shiites in Iraq, and up to 20 people were reported killed.

Iraqi Shiite leader Mohammed Baqer Al-Hakim may be among the dead or injured.

There has been considerable unrest among the Islamic factions in the city where the bombing took place, Najaf, a holy city 110 miles southwest of Baghdad.

The news comes one week after a bomb exploded outside the house of one of Iraqi's most important Shiite clerics, killing three guards and injuring 10 others including family members.

The gas cylinder was placed along the outside wall of the home of Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim in Najaf. It exploded just after noon prayers Aug. 24.

The cleric suffered scratches on his neck, according to Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a member of Iraq's U.S.-picked Governing Council and leader of what was the armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, headquartered in Iran before the war.

The Al-Hakims are one of the most influential families in the Shiite community in Iraq.

Full story...

From The Australian :

One British soldier was killed and another wounded in the southern Iraqi port city of Basra overnight, a coalition spokesman said today.

The pair were hit by small arms fire either late Wednesday or pre-dawn Thursday, the spokesman said.

Also from The Australian :

Five US soldiers and an Iraqi were wounded in a mortar attack north of Baghdad airport, a US army spokesman said tonight.

"Five American soldiers with the 1st Armoured Division and one civilian were wounded north of Baghdad airport yesterday (Wednesday) at 3pm local time(2000 AEST) in an attack using 10 mortar rounds," the spokesman said.

"The wounded were evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital," he added.

Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. This Iraq Report is just part of today's briefing from team member Dan Darling of Regnum Crucis.

• While this shouldn't come as much of a surprise, al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the UN bombing and specifically singles out de Mello as a "friend of the criminal Bush." The communique comes from the Brigades of the Martyr Abu Hafs al-Masri (after the late al-Qaeda military commander's nom de guerre), the same group that claimed responsibility for the Northeast Blackout. Is that a full schedule, or what?

• Another al-Qaeda affiliate that has claimed responsibility for the attack is the Armed Vanguards of the Second Mohammed Army. I found the Arabic name of this organization (Jaish Mohammed) to be rather curious because, as I noted on my blog, it's showed up before.

• The US has handed control of the Shi'ite holy city of Karbala over to Bulgarian forces. Karbala's mayor, Akram al-Yassri, is thanking the coalition for everything it's done to rebuild Karbala since the end of the war.

• Armed Liberal wonders if the USA should be bringing in Russians to join them. Which ignites a very lively and infiormed comments thread.

• What has apparently a major Iraqi criminal cartel based out of Khalis has now been dismantled as a result of US intervention.

• The Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) appears to be out in full force after the uncle of their leader was slightly injured in a bombing that killed three on August 24. I suspect that the power struggle between SCIRI and Sadr's Mahdi Army may mirror parallel events in Iran (both Sadr and Hakim are backed by Tehran), especially now that Hezbollah has sided with SCIRI.

• The most popular weapon for GIs in Iraq these days appears to be captured Iraqi AK-47s.

• Witness Lt. Smash's return in all of its glory over at Command Post.

• The World Tribune is claiming that Iraq's WMDs were moved to Lebanon. I'd take this with a fifty-fifty chance of being true, just based on my own past experience with the Tribune.

• It appears that al-Qaeda leader Abdel Rahman al-Najdi's call for al-Qaeda fighters to head to Iraq is being heeded. According to ABC News, fighters from the Algerian GIA are now en route to Iraq.

• The "coalition of the willing" looks like it's standing firm in Iraq.

• Which "cards" have we captured so far? The CENTCOM list. And the visual version of "Ba'ath Poker."

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops. American, British and Australian. Anyone out there with more information, incl. the Poles and Czechs? [updated August 19, 2003]

Other Topics Today Include: Iran-NK cooperation; al-Qaeda cells in Canada & USA; the latest developments in the Bali bombers' trial; al-Qaeda's funding of Jemaah Islamiyyah; the JI infrastructure in Southeast Asia; a call for an end to violence in Algeria; tracking down the Sahara kidnappers; simultaneous bombings in Mumbai and Krasnodar; the assassination of a Dagestani minister; Mullah Omar in the mountains; Osama in northern Pakistan; and a Canadian ban on smiling on passports.

read the rest! »

"Standing before me was The Most Beautiful Woman on Earth, surrounded by my family. I dropped my bags, and closed the final yards in long, quick strides."

LT is home and he has the most wonderful post about his trip back, with pictures and open comments. Please, go welcome him back, thank him and bring a tissue or two for his beautifully written tale of coming home.

[World Tribune]

U.S. intelligence suspects Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have finally been located.

Unfortunately, getting to them will be nearly impossible for the United States and its allies, because the containers with the strategic materials are not in Iraq.

Instead they are located in Lebanon's heavily-fortified Bekaa Valley, swarming with Iranian and Syrian forces, and Hizbullah and ex-Iraqi agents, Geostrategy-Direct.com will report in Wednesday's new weekly edition.

U.S. intelligence first identified a stream of tractor-trailer trucks moving from Iraq to Syria to Lebaon in January 2003. The significance of this sighting did not register on the CIA at the time.

Full story...

[Fox News]

Hundreds of U.S. soldiers raided a northern town Tuesday in a bid to smash a crime ring wanted for murder, gunrunning and a terrorist attack on a police station that killed an American soldier earlier this month.

Separately, the toll of U.S. troops killed in postwar Iraq surpassed the number killed in major combat on Tuesday, reaching 139 with the death of a soldier in a roadside bombing.

In Tuesday's raid, soldiers backed by tanks, helicopters and Bradley fighting vehicles stormed Khalis, 42 miles north of Baghdad, hunting for the gang's notorious leader, Lateef Hamed al Kubaishat -- known as Lateef by U.S. forces, said Col. David Hogg, commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade.

Full story...

[CNN]

Fearing more attacks such as last week's bombing at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, the International Committee of the Red Cross has decided to reduce the number of non-Iraqi staffers working in the capital, a group spokesman said Monday.

"It has come to our knowledge that we may be the target of an attack in Iraq," said Florian Westphal, a press officer based in Geneva, Switzerland.

"We don't know by who or why, but this is credible knowledge, and as a result we have decided to reduce the number of expats in Baghdad."

Full story...

For those of you who have read the OpEds of LT Smash on Command Post, I just want to let you know that the LT's pieces will no longer be "Live From the Sandbox," as he is on his way home from Iraq.

Thank you for a job well done and welcome home.

[Fox News]

Three British servicemen have been killed and another seriously wounded in Iraq's second city of Basra, military officials said.

Local people at the scene said a British four-wheel drive vehicle had come under fire from another car, veered off the road and crashed.

The incident had been contained, officials told CNN. They would not initially release any further information.

Full story...

[Yahoo News]

Both U.S. soldiers claimed as captured by a previously unknown Iraqi group are safely in American hands and never were missing, Pentagon (news - web sites) officials said Friday.
The group claimed to have captured two American soldiers near Baghdad in a statement released to the Lebanese Broadcast Corp.
One of the two soldiers is being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas and had lost his identification when he was injured by a land mine, military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The other soldier also is safe in U.S. military hands, military officials said.

Full story...

[Thanks, Mark]

[Sky News]

The Pentagon is looking into claims that two US troops - one a woman - have been captured by Islamic forces in Iraq.
A Lebanese TV station reported that the group, calling itself Fukat al-Madina al-Munawara, or Medina Faction, had captured the pair during a shootout.
LBCI showed what it said was photocopies of the soldiers' military identity cards.
The pair were named as Katherine Rose and Andrew Peters but the claim has not been verified.
A Pentagon spokesman said it was looking into the allegations.

That's the full extent of the story. More as it is reported.

To temper your sadness and anger that surely stems for the stories of death and the French, I bring you some good news. From USATODAY:

Marilyn Manuel's family and friends had gathered to mourn at their Queens home after hearing the worst: Officials told them she had been killed in the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Iraq.

Then, a telephone call early Thursday brought a miracle: Manuel's voice on the line, calling from a hospital outside Baghdad.

Incidentally, I'm watching CNN TV interview the family live as I type this ... their joy is palpable.

So say the (French) IHT:

Iraqi women, frightened by reports of a rash of kidnappings and rapes, are donning veils, staying indoors and avoiding school, frustrating those who hoped that the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime would usher in an era of freedom and greater equality for women.
.
Coalition authorities and the local police do not keep statistics on kidnappings and rapes of girls and women, crimes one women’s group says occur 20 times a day in Iraq now that the harsh punishments meted out by Hussein’s regime are no longer a threat to criminals.

From MSNBC:

France on Friday dismissed a U.S. effort to get more nations to send soldiers to back up its troops in Iraq, saying an international force should instead be sent with a United Nations mandate.

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin urged the coalition powers to switch from ''a logic of occupation to a logic of sovereignty'' in Iraq.

It seems that the Iraq homicidal murderers opposition is actively treating Iraqis who work for or assist the US as "soft targets." Read more here at Reuters:

Iraqi guerrillas have killed 62 U.S. soldiers since major hostilities were declared over on May 1, but are also targeting locals working with the 132,000 American troops here.

Translators are particularly at risk because they are often helping the U.S. soldiers with intelligence about supporters of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

In Tuesday's attack, some half a dozen men followed [an] interpreter in a car on his way home near Samarra, opening fire into his vehicle from behind with a machinegun, Luke said.

"After stopping his car, they walked up and put a bullet in the back of his head with a note saying 'We are going to kill collaborators'," he added at 4th division headquarters in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown north of Samarra.

The Iraqi was the third interpreter to die since July in five deliberate attacks on locals working with Americans in the three provinces the 4th Infantry Division controls north of Baghdad, Luke said.

It seems the UN guards were all former members of the Iraqi Secret Service. From the NYT:

American investigators looking into the suicide bombing of the United Nations compound on Tuesday are focusing on the possibility that the attackers were assisted by Iraqi security guards who worked there, a senior American official here said today.

The official said all of the guards at the compound were agents of the Iraqi secret services, to whom they reported on United Nations activities before the war. The United Nations continued to employ them after the war was over, the official said.

The official said that when investigators began questioning the guards, two of them asserted that they were entitled to "diplomatic immunity" and refused to cooperate. Diplomats working in foreign countries are often entitled to immunity from prosecution by local authorities, but the official said the two guards could make no such claim.

It happened south of Baghdad; he was with the 1st MEF. A 1AD soldier was also killed in Baghdad, but it is unclear if the death was combat related. Details here at Reuters.

Not the People's Front Of Judea. Not the Judean People's Front. Not even The Popular Front. It was the Armed Vanguards of a Second Mohammed Army. From the Springfield News-Leader:

A previously unknown group claimed responsibility for the unprecedented suicide attack against the United Nations. The group calling itself the "Armed Vanguards of a Second Mohammed Army" pledged "to continue fighting every foreigner (in Iraq) and to carry out similar operations" in a statement sent to the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite channel.

There was no way to verify the claim's authenticity. Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, said he was aware of a group with a similar name, but did not elaborate.

In Washington, U.S. intelligence officials said they were unfamiliar with the group and its claim of responsibility couldn't be authenticated. There is a group of former Baath Party loyalists in Iraq who call themselves "Mohammed's Army," one official said, on condition of anonymity, but it is not known whether the groups are related.

The news on the Chemical Ali capture is becoming more complete; ReutersAlertNet just released this story which offers a strong summation. In includes this paragraph:

In a rare trip abroad in 2002, Majid visited North Africa. Opposition groups said he was looking for a hiding place for Iraq's alleged banned weapons -- which Washington and London said he had retained in violation of U.N. demands -- or a safe haven for Saddam's family in the event of war.

Hmmm. Finally, the story offers a review of the gassing of the Kurds at Halabja, which Ali ordered. To read a primer on that act of mass homicide (which I posted in March), go here.

[Captured, see post below this]

Ali Hassan Al-Majid Al-Tikriti: Number 5 - the King of Spades - on the Most Wanted list.

Was originally thought to have been killed on April 7, 2003, but was discovered to be still alive on August 11.

Nicknamed "Chemical Ali," he led the 1988 campaign against rebellious Kurds in northern Iraq in which thousands died, many in chemical attacks. Al-Tikriti was also linked to crackdowns on Shiites in southern Iraq. During Iraq's seven-month occupation of Kuwait in 1990-1991, he was governor of the emirate. He next served as defense minister, from 1991-95.

So reports CNN. More to follow.

UPDATE : From CNN :

BAGHDAD (CNN) -- Ali Hasan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein's cousin known as "Chemical Ali," who allegedly ordered a deadly chemical weapons attack against Kurds in 1988, is in U.S. custody, the U.S. military said Thursday.

He is the king of spades in the deck of cards and was number five in the 55 most wanted list issued by the military. He was taken into custody several days ago, the military said.

If you're curious about Sergio Vieira de Mello, the senior UN representative in Iraq killed during today's bombing of the UN HQ in Baghdad, visit his UN bio here. The UN News Centre has also posted a story on the explosion here.

(This post is cross-posted here.)

The latest, courtesy the San Francisco Chronicle:

A deadly truck bomb that exploded outside the hotel housing the U.N. headquarters in Iraq was such a "massive attack" that the death toll likely will grow throughout the day, Rep. Jim Gibbons said Tuesday.

Gibbons, R-Nev., was briefed on the attack during a teleconference with members of the House Intelligence Committee within minutes of the explosion.

"It was a massive attack. I think the numbers (of dead) are going to grow continually throughout the day," Gibbons told The Associated Press.

"Certainly when you have something of that magnitude with the outcome being as devastating as it was, the numbers are going to have to be flexible," he said in a telephone interview.

Initial reports indicated at least 20 U.N. workers and Iraqis were killed, including the chief U.N. official in Iraq, and 100 were injured.

Gibbons, a senior member of the Intelligence Committee, said U.S. officials were surprised that al-Qaida was "trying to take credit for it."

"We think this is a problem with the internal guerrilla style warfare going on with the Baath Party trying to undermine the efforts of the United States and the United Nations to rebuild the country," he said.

FNC is saying that Reuters is reporting that Sergio Vieira De Mello has died in the bombing.

UPDATE: Mr. De Mello's death has been confirmed by Reuters and FNC. He was a top UN official.

The Fox ticker is reporting 15 dead and 40 injured in the bombing incident.

Operation Red Tape - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED
The relevant contact information included if you wish to voice your outrage.

Frankie Mayo has a mission — to cool the air for as many U.S. soldiers in Iraq as she can by sending them as many as air conditioners as she can lay her hands on. What started with a single air conditioner sent to her son at the end of June has grown into Operation Air Conditioner, with tons of units being sent to the troops. It is more than just providing them a touch of comfort or a taste of home, it is about helping them avoid heatstroke and providing them comfortable sleeping conditions. But, Mrs. Mayo had 302 new air conditioners waiting to go on Friday, when the U.S. Postal Service pulled the plug.

Local and regional postal representatives ducked our inquiries yesterday. But at 4:50 Friday afternoon, Mrs. Mayo was told by a bureaucrat in an air-conditioned office at Delaware's Wilmington Distribution Center that it would no longer ship the air conditioners because they contain freon, which is listed as a class 2 compressed gas.

Postmaster General John Potter ought to be alerted to this by phone (202/268-2020), fax (202/268-5211) or e-mail (www.usps.com/common/contact_us/ and click on consumer feedback).

The USPS is incredibly belated in its sudden discovery. After all, Mrs. Mayo had already sent 425 air conditioners to the long-suffering soldiers with nary a comment, much less a holdup. Neither the blue-suits in USPS headquarters in Washington nor the brass at the Pentagon had complained. In fact, soldiers have been deluging Mrs. Mayo with requests.

From CNN.com: At least one fatality, 32 injured.

More from CNN TV: Time of blast is now set at 4:05 local; approx. two-dozen people removed from the scene. That wing housed the Office of the World Food Program and other UN offices, including there database section ... the wing was described as "an active wing of the compound."

CNN employee on the scene is on the phone with CNN now: A lot of destruction to the facade; US military are securing the area; 5 US helicopters have been in for evac.; 4 more choppers are "searching the area." Some UN folks are also saying a mortar or other round was fired [ED: This sounds very speculative to me, FYI, so treat that info accordingly]. Scene is not really very chaotic; military are controlling the scene. Many locals are showing up on the scene looking for their loved ones who worked there.

Now saying there are four evac helicopters in the air, and three on the ground. One uncomfirmed report of three fatalities; other injuries.

And there's this: CNN has also confirmed that the UN representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello, has been "seriously hurt."

UPDATE: Reuters is now confirming three fatalities (via CNN TV); AP is reporting at least 9 people wounded, both Iraqis and UN personnel. Blast was at 4:30 PM Baghdad time.

Breaking News from MSNBC:

An explosion tore through the United Nation’s headquarters in Baghdad causing scores of casualties, U.S. military sources and witnesses said.

Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. officials reported that a rocket-propelled grenade and gun attack on a U.S. convoy north of Baghdad wounded two American soldiers.

Lieutenant Colonel William MacDonald of the 4th Infantry Division said the convoy was attacked near Balad, a town in the “Sunni Triangle” north and west of Baghdad where support for fugitive dictator Saddam Hussein remains strong.

Also in the region, at least seven Iraqis were killed Monday in a blast at an ammunition dump north of Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit. MacDonald said U.S. troops investigating the explosion found one body at the scene and Iraqi police later found a further six.

The identities of those killed were not known, but soldiers said the ammunition dump had been often targeted by looters.