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Bekijk Volledige Versie : Explosie in Moskee, CentCom heeft de oorzaak verzonnen



lennart
04-07-03, 22:28
Centcom, ground commanders differ on cause of blast


By Patrick J. McDonnell and Terry McDermott, Los Angeles Times, 7/4/2003

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Commanders on the ground have found no evidence to substantiate allegations by the military's Central Command that a deadly explosion at a mosque compound may be related to bombmaking activities, officers said yesterday.

''I don't think you could say any way definitively that that was what was going on,'' said Captain Joffery Watson, intelligence officer for occupying troops in this restive town west of Baghdad. ''I have no idea where Centcom got that.''

In a brief statement Wednesday, Central Command said the explosion that killed as many as 10 people Monday night ''was apparently related to a bomb-manufacturing class that was being taught inside the mosque.''

Lieutenant Colonel Eric Wesley of the Second Brigade of the Third Armored Division, which is occupying Fallujah, said yesterday, ''I'm unaware of the bomb-school information.''

The varying accounts between top military brass and some on the ground left commanders here in a difficult position. Some even suggested privately that Central Command had gotten it wrong.

Many residents blamed the blast on a US warplane, and ''eyewitness'' accounts of such an aircraft above the mosque before the explosion were disseminated widely in the Arabic-language press. Neighborhood residents dubbed the dead men ''martyrs.''

US military officials have downplayed the likely presence of explosives in the mosque as an isolated instance and not a sign of a growing Islamic front against occupying forces. US authorities have reported sporadic attacks from the vicinity of mosques.

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the US-led ground forces in Iraq, said in Baghdad yesterday that the Fallujah site was a suspected bomb factory.

But he also said: ''I am here to tell you that over the last month, Fallujah has been a great example of cooperation. ''

For weeks, US troops have been working to calm a potentially incendiary state of affairs in this town, which has emerged as a caldron of anti-US activity.

Military authorities here have been quick not to jump to conclusions publicly about the cause of the explosion, which killed the mosque imam, or preacher, Sheik Laith Khalil Dahham, 35, and as many as nine other men described by residents as religious students.

One possible explanation circulating among moderate Iraqis here is that agitators seeking to discredit US forces deliberately planted the explosive material at the mosque compound, a scenario that would exonerate the dead.


De beschuldiging van Central Command dat in de moskee werd gebruikt als bomfabriek en dat er op dat moment lessen gaande waren om bommen te maken, blijken dus uit de hoge hoed getoverd. De ware reden zullen we wel nooit weten.