U.S. forces still come under daily attacks

BAGHDAD, December 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military truck outside Baghdad Friday, December 19, wounding two U.S. soldiers as an Iraqi woman was killed and eight other people wounded in a pre-dawn bombing of a homeless shelter run by Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim political group.

According to the Associated Press (AP), 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, quoted by AP and other news agencies, have earlier said that the hit truck was an oil tanker and that two soldiers were killed in the blast.

In the other explosion, the building collapsed on to families sleeping in the west Baghdad compound of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which also houses a religious school, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"One woman died and eight other people were injured from the explosion in premises occupied by three families," said Mohsen al-Hakim, a nephew of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim who heads the organization and is current chairman of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council.

He said the blast was detonated by remote control.

"We were asleep and suddenly about five o'clock in the morning (0200 GMT) the roof fell on us," said Ahmed Rahim, 23, a nephew of the woman who died. "We were buried under the rubble and our neighbors came and helped us get out."

According to AFP, as he spoke, a sheikh from the religious school arrived and Rahim cried out: "Why didn't you tell us it is dangerous here?"

Sheikh Abd al-Wahid replied that the bombings are happening all over Iraq.

"It is Saddam's people who commit these attacks," he said.

Saddam Hussein was overthrown in April by invading U.S.-led troops and captured last Saturday after more than eight months on the run.

The bombed Shiite compound was formerly used by the Baath party which backed Saddam's regime.

Thousands of homeless people are squatting in former government buildings around Baghdad.

"We aren't surprised by this attack," Wahid told AFP. "Our only crime is to teach the Qur’an. The people who did this are the same ones who killed Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim."

SCIRI was hit hard by the August car bomb assassination of Mohammed al-Hakim, its then leader. Another 82 people died in that attack in south-central holy city of Najaf.

Mohsen al-Hakim blamed "agents of the old regime and terrorists" for Friday's bombing, which came two days after a SCIRI member was gunned down outside his Baghdad home.

Mohannad al-Hakim, who is not related to the SCIRI chief, was shot dead Wednesday, Hamed al-Bayati, the London representative for SCIRI, said earlier.

"It's not the first time that our offices and officials have become victims of this kind of attack which aims to weaken us and remove us from the Iraqi scene," Mohsen al-Hakim said.

More Troops Into Iraq

Iraqis gather by the debris of the building following the explosion

The bloody developments came as the United States said it would pour more troops into Iraq.

Senior defense officials said Thursday, December 18, that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the deployment of an extra brigade of the elite 82nd Airborne Division to Iraq next month and extended the tour of duty of another brigade to maintain combat power as other forces are rotated out.

The deployment will increase the total size of the U.S. force in Iraq by a couple of thousand troops over a three month period during which the entire force is to be replaced with fresh units, the officials were quoted by AFP as saying.

"It is a spike, no question about it," said one official. "But it will provide some capability during the transition period that Abizaid thought was important."

General John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, had asked for the deployment of the 82nd Airborne's 1st Brigade after deciding that an infantry brigade of the Washington National Guard that was to have deployed to Iraq in January needed more training.