Qaeda claims attack on Iraqi unit

AL-QAEDA yesterday claimed responsibility for a coordinated attack last week on an Iraqi military centre that killed 12 people, according to a statement posted on a jihadist website.

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) said one of its militants blew himself up at one entrance to the Rusafa military command headquarters last Sunday while four other jihadists, wearing explosive belts, fought security forces.

Accounts varied between witnesses and United States and Iraqi security forces about what actually happened that day, but Baghdad's security command said five suicide bombers had approached the compound in a minibus.

One was fired on as he got out of the vehicle and his suicide vest detonated, Baghdad operations command said in a statement.

Two others fled to a nearby building, while the remaining two drove the vehicle towards soldiers, setting off their payload before they could be stopped.

Al-Qaeda's front group had a different story to tell.

"The operation was launched when the first martyr blew up his vehicle at the back entrance of the centre, after driving past control points," the ISI statement said.

"After that explosion, which took the apostates by surprise, four martyrs wearing explosive vests and armed with machine-guns and grenades stormed the centre and, according to plan, seized control of two buildings," it added.

The jihadists claimed that the clashes lasted more than an hour and that they had killed "dozens of security forces members" and only activated their explosive vests when they ran out of ammunition, according to the statement.

The US military has said that American troops deployed inside the Rusafa headquarters supported Iraqi forces in dealing with the attack — the first such engagement since August 31 when US combat operations in Iraq ended and a new mission to advise and assist Iraqi forces began.

Lieutenant Colonel Eric Bloom said a team of United States military advisers provided "suppressive fire" against a building where the two insurgents were hiding.

The deputy commander of the new US mission, Lieutenant General Michael Barbero, said on Monday that Sunday's attack on Rusafa bore the hallmark of al-Qaeda.

A booby-trapped vehicle and "suicide vests.

That's their normal tactics and techniques," he told AFP