Iraq

Rubble may reveal origin of Iraq truck bomb

Some U.N. workers remain missing as FBI agents comb the scene where an explosives-laden truck blew up.

BAGHDAD - The devastating blast at the U.N. headquarters Tuesday came mainly from a 500-pound, Soviet-made bomb aboard a flatbed truck with 500 to 1,000 pounds of military explosives packed around it, the chief FBI investigator said Wednesday.

Investigators continued sifting through the rubble as officials asked if the attack could have been prevented.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that both the United States and the United Nations made mistakes in Iraq.

"The coalition has made some mistakes, and maybe we've made some mistakes, too," Annan said. "I don't want to get into finger pointing. I think we are all aware that along the way mistakes have been made by all concerned."

Ahmed Chalabi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said at a news conference that he had passed intelligence to the Americans this month indicating that a militant Islamic group had discussed the truck bombing of several targets in Baghdad, including the U.N. headquarters. U.S. officials in Iraq declined to comment.

President Bush decided Wednesday to return to the United Nations for a resolution seeking greater international involvement in Iraq, including more foreign troops and wider funding for reconstruction, the Los Angeles Times and New York Times reported, quoting unnamed U.S. officials. The new resolution would maintain U.S. military control over any international forces in Iraq.

FBI agents combing the scene said the truck used in the attack had carried about 1,500 pounds of explosives including mortar shells, hand grenades and a 500-pound Soviet-made bomb. Contrary to earlier reports from witnesses that a cement mixer had been used for the attack, the FBI said Wednesday that the vehicle used was a flatbed truck.

Thomas Fuentes, the special agent in charge of operations in Iraq, said the munitions were probably packed on top of the bomb, which was of the kind normally dropped from airplanes.

A flatbed truck was also used in a bombing attack on the Jordanian Embassy this month, he said. The FBI is awaiting chemical analysis to find out if the materiel used in that attack consisted of old Iraqi munitions.

Investigators said they would conduct a chemical analysis on human remains found in the truck debris outside the U.N. building to determine how many people were inside.

They added that they would try to trace the vehicle's identification number, but that the looting of vehicles and the destruction of so many records would make any such identification difficult.

The nature of the weapons suggested to some experts that the authors of the attack included former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, but without any proof of such a link or any claim of responsibility, the nature of the organization behind the bombing remained murky.

Fuentes said human remains were found among the wreckage of the vehicle, a Russian-made cargo truck, indicating that Tuesday's bombing probably was a suicide attack. The blast was so powerful that a bumper believed to be from the truck was found more than 500 yards away.

No group claimed responsibility, and Fuentes said it was too early to tell whether the attack was carried out by Iraqi guerrillas loyal to Hussein or foreign terrorists.

A large amount of military munitions in Iraq are "readily available to any number of groups," Fuentes said.

The FBI team includes experts who worked on the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa in 1998 and several bombings in Saudi Arabia, all of which are believed to have been carried out by al-Qaida.

Fuentes said rescue efforts and attempts to collect evidence were hampered by the danger of unexploded ordnance in the wreckage. An unexploded Soviet-made hand grenade, with its pin sheared off, was found Tuesday, he said.

U.S. military engineers worked late Wednesday with a backhoe and military bulldozer to clear away large pieces of concrete and twisted metal, while soldiers searched by hand for victims. Hopes dimmed that any more survivors would be found.

Fuentes said it would take a couple of days to clear the rubble, find any remaining bodies and collect whatever evidence was there.

Initial reports by Iraqis and some U.S. officials said a cement truck smashed through the gate or through a cement-block security wall. Fuentes said the truck never entered the compound but exploded on an unguarded road adjacent to the wall, about 10 yards from the building.

The bombing killed more than 20 people, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, and wounded more than 100.

The blast gouged a 6-foot-deep crater in the ground and collapsed a corner of the building where de Mello's office and a humanitarian assistance center were.

Fuentes said accurate figures on casualties were difficult to pin down. Some U.N. personnel still were missing, and officials were having a difficult time accounting for all employees because the wounded were taken to a number of hospitals.

The devastating blast was the worst attack ever on a U.N. facility, and the deadliest in Iraq since major combat in the U.S.-led war that toppled Hussein ended more than three months ago. The bombing came just 12 days after a car bomb at the Jordanian Embassy killed 19 people and wounded more than 60.

At a news conference Wednesday in Stockholm, Sweden, Annan said the United Nations would review its security procedures but wouldn't end its mission in Iraq.

"We will persevere. We will continue. It is essential work. We will not be intimidated," Annan said.

Annan said he was surprised to hear reports that the United Nations turned down an offer of security from U.S.-led coalition forces. He stressed that security was the responsibility of the United States as the occupying power and if it was needed, the United Nations shouldn't even have been asked.

"I don't know if the U.N. did turn down offer for protection, but if it did, it was not correct and they should not have been allowed to turn it down," Annan said. "That kind of decision should not be left to the protected. It is those with responsibility for security and law and order, who have intelligence, which determines what action is taken."

The United Nations announced that Annan would meet Secretary of State Colin Powell this morning, and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw later today.

Foreign U.N. staff members who worked at the Baghdad compound were told to stay in their hotels Wednesday. While some contemplated leaving, others vowed to stay.

At some U.N. facilities, such as the World Health Organization, guards in flak jackets checked vehicles for bombs and made drivers park farther away.

On Wednesday, one U.S. soldier and an American contractor working as an interpreter were killed in hostile actions, U.S. Central Command said.

The soldier, with 3rd Corps Support Command, died when his flatbed transporter was hit with automatic weapons fire in Diwaniyah, in southern Iraq, where such attacks have been rare. The interpreter died in Tikrit when troops came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

- Information from Knight Ridder Newspapers, the New York Times, Washington Post and Associated Press was used in this report.

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