Wedeman: Hunt on for survivors after Iraq blast
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Ben Wedeman
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L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, says he will return to Baghdad for talks with the Iraqi Governing Council.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 25 people were killed Wednesday in an explosion at Italian military police headquarters in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya, coalition and Iraqi hospital officials said.
Among the dead were 17 Italians, including 11 military police, four army soldiers and two Italian civilians, according to Italian and British officials. Iraqi hospital sources said that at least eight Iraqis also died.
CNN's Ben Wedeman discussed the blast Wednesday.
WEDEMAN: This attack occurred midmorning in this southern city when a car and a truck drove up to the main entrance of the military police headquarters in Nasiriya. Apparently, the car blew up, and there are reports that also the truck did as well.
... Rescue teams are digging through the ruins of one of the main buildings in the military police compound. Italian officials say [that] when the bomb went off there were at least 60 people inside that building.
They are looking for survivors and bodies there.
These are the first Italian combat fatalities in Iraq since a force of Italian soldiers and policemen came to this country following the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein.
We heard the Italian defense minister [Antonio Martino] say they believe at this point that Fedayeen Saddam may have been behind the attack. This is an organization founded in the early 1990s headed by Uday Hussein, the brutal son of the [ousted] president.
This was an organization notorious for its brutality.
There is a good deal of confusion on the ground. ... The coalition is stumped as to what kind of network is involved in these attacks. They have said in the past they think the organization and coordination is on a local level. They don't think it's a nationwide network.
Certainly, the fact that this is the first attack in Nasiriya in the south -- the south has been relatively quiet -- has really engendered more confusion as to who is behind this. Whoever they are, they are becoming ever more sophisticated and ever more bold in their attacks.
