- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi
insurgents bombarded the fortified headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition
in Baghdad early Friday, the first attack on the compound since U.S. forces
launched a mass anti-guerrilla offensive a month ago.
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- In Washington, the Bush administration was braced for
a possible legal battle over its decision to bar France, Germany, Russia
and other countries that opposed the Iraq war from participating in its
reconstruction.
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- Shortly after midnight in Baghdad, several loud booms
shook the city. Sirens wailed and loudspeakers warned residents inside
the headquarters complex to take evasive action.
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- The U.S. military could not immediately confirm what
sort of munitions were fired, but sources said mortars were probably used
to hammer the two square mile area, known as the Green Zone, on the banks
of the Tigris river.
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- "There were four points of impact within the Green
Zone," a U.S. military spokeswoman said Friday. "Two coalition
force members were slightly wounded from flying debris, but the injuries
are not life-threatening."
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- One building in the area, which comprises dozens of palaces
once part of Saddam Hussein's presidential compound, was slightly damaged.
Smoke billowed from two locations.
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- It was the first bombardment on the headquarters, which
is protected by concrete walls, since mid-November when guerrillas fired
on the area several nights running. It was also the first assault on the
complex since U.S. forces launched a major counteroffensive against insurgents
last month.
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- The attack came after a suicide car bomb blast on a U.S.
military base west of Baghdad which killed one U.S. soldier and wounded
14, three of them seriously. It was the third suicide attack on U.S. forces
in Iraq this week.
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- Since the start of the war to oust Saddam, 311 U.S. soldiers
have been killed in action, 196 of them in guerrilla attacks since major
combat was declared over on May 1.
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- Members of the U.S.-led coalition have also been targeted.
In the latest such attack Friday, two Polish soldiers were wounded when
a roadside bomb hit their vehicle near Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad.
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- CONTRACT DISPUTE
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- The Bush administration is facing a deepening dispute
over contracts it plans to award in the process of rebuilding Iraq. The
Pentagon has said contracts to be financed by $18.6 billion of U.S. money
will be limited to countries that backed the war, freezing out the likes
of France, Germany, Russia and China.
-
- European Commission officials are studying whether the
restrictions violate World Trade Organization rules. In Brussels, European
Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana called the Pentagon move "not
the wisest decision."
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- In an apparent effort to calm tempers, Bush is dispatching
special envoy James Baker to Europe for talks on the contracts as well
as how creditors are going to go about reducing Iraq's estimated $120 billion
of external debt obligations.
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- Inside Iraq, U.S. efforts to create a new, streamlined
Iraqi army suffered a major setback Thursday when more than a third of
the recruits resigned, complaining about pay and conditions.
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- Some 300 soldiers of the 700 drafted into the First Battalion
of the Iraqi army walked away from barracks, with many reportedly looking
for jobs with the better paying police.
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- The United States is recruiting and training an army
it envisions as a force of about 40,000, along with larger numbers of police
and border guards.
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- In southern Iraq, Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino
visited Italian troops in Nassiriya, a month after 19 Italians and nine
Iraqis were killed in a suicide bomb attack there. (With additional reporting
by Jamie Crawford in Rome and Adam Entous in Washington)
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