An explosion rocked a building belonging to Iraq's main Shiite Muslim political group early Friday, killing at least one person and wounding two others, according to witnesses.
According to their accounts, the blast hit a residence at a compound of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
Mohsen Al-Hakim, a nephew of Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim who heads the organization, blamed "agents of the old regime and terrorists" for the attack.
Also on Friday, a roadside bomb went off near a U.S. military truck outside Baghdad, wounding two U.S. troops, the military said.
Capt. Tammy Galloway of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division said a homemade explosive device exploded on the roadside as a military truck was passing. Iraqi witnesses said earlier that it was an oil tanker and that two soldiers were killed in the blast.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is sending an additional brigade of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division to Iraq and extending the deployment there of another 82nd Airborne unit in what officials said Thursday is a "minor adjustment" to their plan for rotating fresh troops into Iraq next year.
High-ranking US military officials said part of the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne, which had not been scheduled for duty in Iraq, will begin heading there next month for a four-month tour. The 3rd Brigade of the 82nd, which was scheduled to depart Iraq in February, will remain until April.
Not the entire 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne will be deployed, the officials said. Roughly "a couple of thousand" will go, rather than the entire unit of 3,500 soldiers, they said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
