| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Iraqi wounded in airport road blast
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military on Sunday closed the main road joining Baghdad International Airport to the capital, to investigate a civilian car explosion that badly wounded an Iraqi driver. It was unclear what caused the blast, but military officials suggested the explosion may have been a land mine or an "improvised explosive device" that could have been intended for U.S. troops by the Iraqi resistance. "Until the investigation is complete there will be nothing that is final at this point," said Sgt. Brent Williams of the 1st Armored Division. The blast occurred on the same road where a vehicle hit a land mine Thursday, killing a U.S. soldier and wounding three others. Iraqi civilians are increasingly becoming caught in crossfire between hit-and-run resistance fighters and the U.S.-led military coalition. The U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq -- L. Paul Bremer -- said Saturday that such incidents are not diminishing general Iraqi support for the U.S. military presence. "When we have civilians injured or killed ... we do conduct investigations," Bremer told reporters. "When we find we make errors, we make apologies and sometimes make compensation to the next of kin." Attacks on U.S. forces, Bremer said -- including those that have hit Iraqi civilians -- come largely from remnants of toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and from "foreign terrorists" determined to strike the United States wherever they can. Bremer said that the same groups have targeted the country's infrastructure -- electrical facilities, oil pipelines, bridges -- adding that such attacks hurt "the people of Iraq most of all." "Saboteurs are the enemies of Iraq and the enemies of its people," he said. Bremer: Electricity to pre-war levels by SeptemberMeanwhile, many Iraqis remain frustrated by the amount of time it is taking to repair the nation's infrastructure, utilities and other public services. Bremer on Saturday defended coalition efforts to rebuild Iraq. "In the area of [electric] power, for example, we are now generating about 3,300 megawatts every day in Baghdad, which is about two-thirds of the total capacity of the country," he said. "We believe we will have power restored to pre-war levels by the end of September." He also cited the return of banking services to Baghdad, water-supply improvements and the reopening of schools. 'We are going to get Saddam'Bremer said U.S. troops were receiving more frequent tips from Iraqi civilians about where to find Saddam loyalists -- including the informant who claimed $30 million and relocation out of the country for turning in Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay, and a 14-year-old grandson. The three were killed July 22 in a firefight with U.S. troops at a house in Mosul. "In the most famous case, someone told us where to find Uday and Qusay," said Bremer. "We are going to get Saddam, too," Bremer said. "The only question is who is going to get $25 million [reward money] and move to another country." CNN Baghdad Bureau Chief Jane Arraf and correspondents Barbara Starr, Nic Robertson, Harris Whitbeck and Rym Brahimi contributed to this report.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
