U.S. soldiers do not know where fire comes from in Iraq

BAGHDAD, August 22 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Two U.S. soldiers have been killed in separate incidents in Iraq, as U.N. and U.S. officials exchanged blame over security status leading to the bombing of the international body’s headquarters in the Iraqi capital.

The U.S. army said Friday, August 22, that one soldier was killed in Baghdad and the other near Hilla, south of the capital, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The first soldier died after being caught in a fire at 4:30 pm (1230 GMT) Thursday, August 21, that broke out at a building on a shooting range in Baghdad's Karrada district, said spokesman Anthony Reinoso.

He died 20 minutes later from smoke inhalation, he said, adding that six others were wounded.

It was not clear if the fire was accidental or a case of arson, Reinoso said. Earlier, a spokesperson had called the death "a fatality," but gave no further details.

The second attack killed a soldier with the Marine Expeditionary Force near Hilla, 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad, said Sergeant Amy Abbott, without making clear when the assault took place or giving any details.

The attack on the soldier near Hilla brought to 64 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in guerrilla-style (resistance) attacks in Iraq since Washington declared major combat over on May 1.

Security Guards At U.N. HQ Implicated

Meanwhile, a U.N. official told AFP Friday that Iraqi security guards at the United Nations' Baghdad headquarters aided the plotters of the truck bombing which gutted the U.N. compound, killing 23 people and wounding more than 100.

"They clearly had support from Iraqi security guards inside who gave intelligence to the planners of the attack," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"It was a well prepared attack. The target was Sergio Vieira de Mello, that much is clear," he said, referring to the top U.N. envoy in Iraq killed in Tuesday's bombing.

"They knew where Vieira de Mello's office was and they knew they would find him in his office and they packed the vehicle with the maximum amount of explosives.

The vehicle was positioned in the spot where it would make that part of the building collapse," the official said.

The unnamed U.N. official further claimed that some of the Iraqi guards at the Canal Hotel, the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad, had been hired under the toppled regime of Saddam Hussein and had links with the fallen dictator's intelligence services.

The U.N. official's comments followed a report in Friday's New York Times that investigators from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, who are assisting Iraqi police with their inquiry into the blast, were focusing on the possibility that the bombers received inside help.

"We believe that the U.N.'s security was seriously compromised," a U.S. official told the paper. "We have serious concerns about the placement of the vehicle."

U.S. Forces Blamed

However, former U.N. chief for refugees Sadako Ogata Friday

U.S. soldiers guard the ruins of the UN Baghdad HQ

 expressed "sadness and anger" over the bombing of the U.N.'s Baghdad office, saying U.S. forces should have given better protection to the compound.

Ogata, the former head of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, said as the occupying force in Iraq the United States bore responsibility for providing security to humanitarian workers engaged in the reconstruction of the country.

"I am very sad because he was a good friend," Ogata told AFP when asked about the bombing and the death of de Mello. "At the same time I am very angry.

"People who try to do the humanitarian reconstruction are civilians and they have to be helped and protected, there has to be better security," Ogata said, adding that the United States should be responsible.

"They are responsible for providing security because they are the occupying power," she said. "This is a heavy responsibility, they are the only ones who can really give security ..."

Ogata left the UNHCR after 10 years at the end of 2000 and is now Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's special representative for Afghanistan.

U.N. Spurned Increased Security Offer

On the other hand, a European diplomat told AFP Friday that a U.N. official turned down an offer from the U.S. military to increase security around the world body's Baghdad headquarters in the run up to this week's devastating truck bombing.

"The Americans knew that there was a threat against the U.N. headquarters - a serious threat. They proposed to reinforce the security network around the Canal Hotel," the diplomat said.

"And the proposal was turned down by a U.N. officer in Baghdad."

Top U.N. envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in the blast, was not informed of the decision to reject a beefed up U.S. military presence at the Canal Hotel, the diplomat said.

The United Nations has so far refused to confirm claims by unidentified U.S. officials that the world body had turned down an offer to strengthen security prior to Tuesday's bombing.

However, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, while conceding mistakes were made all around before the attack, pointed the finger at coalition forces for failing to provide enough security in Baghdad and the rest of Iraq.